Design a Children’s Map—Competition Edition!

Abstract

Map design was revolutionized in the 1940s and 1950s by Arthur Robinson with his research into the effects of color, perception, and readability of various cartographic techniques (Edney 2005). By the early 1990s, it became clear the development and use of geographic information systems (GIS) and computer-based mapping had changed map design once again (King 1991; Hu 2010). More recently, Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users, 2nd Edition by Brewer (2015) provides readers with succinct guidelines to better understand the components of map design and employ graphic skills that result in more effective maps. Using this book as a guide, we can provide students with a nine-part process to designing maps, which is used in the included lesson. This nine-part process is completed in two phases: the design phase and the execution phase. The design phase takes students through steps to plan map layout, required elements, and audience considerations. The execution phase guides students through producing and evaluating the map. This process was developed over the past few years from a combination of personal experience teaching cartography and insights gleaned from cartographic design texts. While the exact process is not in Designing Better Maps, it does follow a very similar approach as presented by Brewer. One of the first points to consider is map audience. This lesson directs students to make a map for children, a very specialized group of map users offering specific challenges to map design (Gerber 1993) who are often overlooked in introductory cartography texts. Indeed, even cartographic literature is surprisingly light on research regarding map design considerations for children. In 1995, Anderson and Vasconcellos identified the importance and value of considering the needs of children as map users and mapmakers and highlighted the surprising lack of research into the topic. More recently, Silva et al. (2020) identified the need to explore the design of digital maps for children, in particular children who can be described as “digital natives.” While map design considerations for children remains under-explored, there are studies that have investigated some specific map design elements with regard to children as the map audience. For example, we know that maps designed for children should use saturated colors (Buckingham and Harrower 2007), simple pictorial symbols (Cheek and Muir 1986; Anderson 1987; Bandrova 2003), prominent explanatory tools like the north arrow/compass rose or a scale bar (Miller 1982), and sans serif fonts in mixed case (Gerber 1982). Further, secondary students can apply generalizations including displacement, merging, and simplification to maps with little or no previous cartographic practice (Filippakopoulou, Nakos, and Michaelidou 2000). By choosing children as the map audience for the assignment presented here, students are provided with a specific design challenge that gives the opportunity to demonstrate cartographic design skills in all elements of map design (Gerber 1993). It also requires students to use visual design over text to communicate information, given the reading level of their target audience. The instructor should have at least a basic knowledge of the concepts of cartographic design, including how to construct and use intellectual and visual hierarchies. While many texts describe these, the definition given by Wesson in The Routledge Handbook of Mapping and Cartography (2017) is most helpful to students. An intellectual hierarchy ranks map elements based on their importance to the map message, while a visual hierarchy ranks map elements based on their prominence in the visual plane of the map. In a well-designed map, the intellectual and visual hierarchies will be nearly the same, if not identical.