Schematic hometown maps

[rasagy]

Similar to #27, let’s pick our own hometowns and make schematic maps. Make sure you post the process, and not just the final output!

References:

Get inspired by the story behind the most seminal schematic map: London Underground Map by Harry Beck, and a critique of the old design along with some interesting alternatives in this TEDx talk on usability of metro maps.

Closer home, have a look at the Isometric & Schematic map of the IIT B by Prof. Mandar Rane.

Here is the process behind one of my schematic maps: Andamanese Language Map.

A Guardian article featuring animations transforming schematic maps into geographically accurate representations.

A great collection of schematic maps of most cities around the world created by INAT, like Delhi & Mumbai.

Essays on Digital Cartography by Justin O’Beirne.

Maki icon set for using quick icons under CC0 license.

David Rumsey’s huge map collection for some vintage cartography inspiration.

The Five Elements for forming a mental model of a city, from Kevin Lynch’s book The Image of the City.

[naveenshaji]

Tourist Map of Trivandrum, Kerala

• Started by tracing out important and significant roads and tourist attractions in the city from Google Maps. Just a rough trace to get an idea about how they can be simplified.

• Identified patterns and simplified roads according to certain rules which constrained angles and layout.

• Re-drew the map with uniform spacing and arrangements, obtaining a framework that could be extended.

• Rendered the map with some visual elements to make it easier to follow. while retaining all the information elements.

This post will be updated with newer versions as I continue to work on it.

• Update: Updated water bodies and forest areas to conform to the schema as well.

Roadmap (no pun intended)

• Separate the different kinds of tourist concerns by type
• Add a legend showing the different types of roads and markers
• Add more visual detailing to the base map.

[ThuliChishi]

Schematic map for Kohima, progress.

1. Understanding the map area. More familiar to me is the small town of Kohima, I picked my hometown and decided to map out some prominent landmarks that everyone knows of back home. Most interestingly these points seem to be along the length of the highway. First an outline of the town was traced and then the main highway that runs through the town was traced. The points of interest were plotted around the highway. What if i turn it this way? And maybe make the road more organic like the real representation of the contours and mess of veins the roads in Kohima's satellite image looks like. Final image, changed the colour scheme. Added tress to indicate the town surrounded by forest areas.

[nebinbiju1]

Schematic map of Kochi, Kerala. The process I started by looking for the major tourist attractions of kochi and marked out the important roads and the major highways connecting those places on a physical map. This eliminated the roads which are less significant.

The same thing was traced on Adobe Illustrator.

The roads where simplified and drawn with constrained angles. I could identify a major highway passing through the city from which the other roads emerged. I took that road as my axis of the map and aligned along the diagonal of the frame.

The backwaters were plotted and was slightly adjusted according to the placement of roads. but still tried to maintain the rough shape of the water.

Major places were plotted along with the tourist attractions.

Why black and white when the city is colorful!!!

Some roads which are less significant from the previous step are also removed.

Trying to improve further..

Following were the feedback that I got from Rasagy and Prof Venkatesh.

• The map looks like one of an airport rather than that of a city. Reason being the main roads ended on both the ends looked like a runway.
• The water bodies and the flora should also be schematised in a schematic map.
• Directions to where the highway leads or giving an arrow mark might avoids the confusion with a runway.
• Color coding the places with proper legends makes it easy for the user to search.

Keeping all these in mind I made the changes and the new map is shown below.

[pranjalmeena]

Schematic map of Ahmedabad I observed the map for a while and traced it to get a better idea of the major roads that connect the different parts of the city.

After getting a basic idea of how the roads are I tried observing patterns, forms in the traced version. I abstracted the actual roads to something simple.

I then added more details to the map.

I added the major tourist attractions and the made the basic layout of the schematic map.

Added some major details like BRTS route.

[TapiaRidhima]

I picked my hometown and studied the map. Outlining the general area I sketched it according to my familiarity of the place. The routes taken and the places are plotted from the perspective of a local and their everyday journey through the town.

[RishabhMakes]

I wanted to make the map of Hisar. My first point of starting was Mapbox, since I knew I can switch off layers and make the abstraction process faster.

Soon enough I realised that there was a lot of missing data and roads. It started with the lack of points of interests. Then I went on to further realise the lack of the newer roads and highways as well.

Moved to Google Maps

During the geometric exploration I was unsure of putting the triangle or just keeping it a circle. Late into the night a tortoise emerged as well. The metaphor of a tortoise made sense as Hisar is what one would call a 'slow' town. So here goes...

The final push?

After struggling with colour schemes for a while, I fixed on the greys since they seem to work, albeit resulting in a boring looking but functional map

[richavagrawal]

Schematic map of Chembur,

I started by trying to re-create and identify the patterns created by the roads and landmarks of Chembur, by tracing over Google maps.

The map above showed only the major roads, and I could not really identify any unique characteristics after my first trace, so I decided to trace over a more zoomed in version of the map which contained more roads and gardens.

My second trace also did not express any one unique characteristic strongly, but I was able to somewhat identify two directions my schematic map could take, and I drew them out in my sketchbook.

Both the ideas utilized geometry. One idea was to create the schematic map using certain prominent shapes as observed while tracing. The second idea was to highlight the angular pattern created by the roads and the geometric placement of landmarks like gardens.

I saw more potential in the second idea and decided to go ahead with that.

I realised a strong visual language created by the roads, and decided to incorporate that in my icons as well as typography.

I would like to try out the following, in further iterations

• Improve the shape of the markers, and try making them more identifiable
• Highlight the more important places

[supriyaDutta]

Schematic map of Jorhat town. Highlighting the highways that connect to Jorhat town and all frequent familiar places, this is the process.

Explorations of the map area

Highlighting the national highways

And... saw this(almost)

Explorations

Added legends!

The MAP:

[varshav28]

Schematic Map of Tampines, Singapore

Since I have not actually lived in my hometown, I decided to do the area I am currently living and studying in. I chose to highlight the nearest and best food spots for students, along with the best mode of transport to get there.

I started with analysing the area and identifying the main roads.

Next, I tried to simplify the map and abstract it as much as possible roughly on paper.

After tracing the outline of the area I wanted to cover, I mapped the routes to the respective food places. I also marked some significant landmarks around the college.

[kiranprasanth]

Schematic map of Trivandrum WIP. Isometric view, map visualisation 2.5D. Experimental attempt to highlight landmarks in trivandrum city.

[supriyaDutta]

Annu - 176330009 work in progress Jaipur shown as a tourist spot using a trolley as outline !

[ArunJRK]

Palani Schematic Map Google Maps Original First sketch First abstraction Second abstraction. Third Iteration

Sun Mushroom Final Map

• Abstracted More. Has the Form of Sun and Mushroom also similar to an observatory.
• Places include Public Amenities
• Reduction in smaller Roads.
• Indicated Conjucture of Important Roads
• Better Visual Balance

[AarchaSuresh]

I started tracing the outline of Trivandrum City first, by making 3 different abstract outlines, without referring to the previous ones.

Keeping all three together, I made the final outline. After i had traced out NH66, I plotted the airport and the railway station. Following that, I proceeded to plot main tourist attractions, few hospitals and restaurants and connected the the railway station and the airport to all these locations, for better continuity.

Considering the feedback given by the class, I further abstracted out the coast line, and gave more emphasis on the airport and the railway station, for easy navigation.

[manasvhanmane]

Chinchwad Map.

Process: Two maps I found. The left one is from an old government report. The one on the right is the current Google Map.

I didn't want curvy roads. So I traced the Major Highways geometrically.

Similarly, the streets. I only chose to highlight lanes which are 4 lanes or bigger.

There is a railway line passing through the city, but it isn't of much significance as only a few trains plying between Pune and Mumbai stop there.

The multiple rivers lines around the land mass basically set the boundaries of the city. One Major river even passes through the heart of it.

I want to make the streets more geometric, so this is still a work in progress.

Reduced a lot of elements.

Finally cleaned it up.

Final:

[enlinquental]

I picked my home town, Vellayambalam, situated at Trivandrum, Kerala.

First I started tracing the main road and Killi river.

Started adding junctions and bus stops.

Then filling necessary text.

Started tracing lanes( short cuts ) that connects main roads, important building areas.

I haven't finished on making the map schematic. Task remaining : Labelling, Legends.

From the feedbacks I got, I changed the text field to horizontal, but didn't fix the alignment because at some places the text can overlay on junction or road and I want a user to clearly see the roads. I fixed hue of the road with varying saturation - a higher value means the main road ( major / important road ) and a lower value means street lanes.

I started adding icons and made legend for the same.

Seems like the above picture has something missing or odd with the layout. So I changed to this :

I like this one than the earlier picture having legends, but I am open to suggestions for both maps. I wish to refine the schematic and visual design of the map.

[jonathanmathew]

I Took up the City of Chennai, Looking specifically at the Rail Transit system.

Image Above is the rough schematic work In progress. Loads of work left to do!

// The Updated map, Where the people and their image of the city are considered by splitting them into zones and aligning them to their mental image of destinations and their parallel stations across railway lines.

[advaitmb]

After looking at the map of thane on Google maps, it was interesting to see the highway creating a hexagonal shape around the city.

I hence decided to stick to a 30-60 degree grid and build the aesthetic around it.

This is the final schematic map of Thane city.

[r1ckrck]

That's Kolkata. And that's Kolkata through my eyes. Now lets see how I went about it. Improving readability? Thank You :) Arnesh Mandal 16U130017

[savshikha]

To start off, I first took a screenshot of Mumbai from Google Maps and started tracing it on Illustrator using the pen tool. I tried a few out before incessantly using the shift button, just to get a sense of the city's lines. While doing this, I realised that having a sense of what is unique to the city's silhouette is more essential than just following lines. It helps one decide what can be reduced and what needs to stay. I best visualise the city as a long mass of land (/island?) broken into different areas. I wanted to incorporate that sense onto my map. So I decided to break it up into different areas, with reference to an already existing map. I kept at my iterations until I was satisfied with my abstraction.

The final abstraction

Side note: At one point the image traced map began to look quite familiar to a Ganpati's face. I gave myself some minutes to try it out before that I realized that it didn't work.

For points of interest I decided to narrow down to places that are representative of the city. For example places related to finance, heritage, bollywood, sports, etc., Also wanted to try out a quirky aesthetic..

Post this, I received a lot of pointers and feedback to work on, during class (maki icons, halo effect, extended transit lines etc.), which I have attempted to incorporate in my (almost final) map below,

I wish to add further POIs to the map, also polish it's overall visual design.

[kapadiaparth]

Tourist Map of Ahmedabad, Gujarat

---

• To start off I first took a screenshot of the Ahmedabad city from Google maps.

• I quickly moved on to Illustrator and made some quick rough outlines to figure out the shape of the city and some important roads running around the city.

• Post mutiple abstractions on paper although the city was a bit squarish in its outline I choose to make it circular because the road bounding the city is called as the Ring road.

• I marked certain places of importance on Google maps

• Finally I went on to add the final places of importance on my schematic and labelled them.

• I look forward to work on the visual design of the schematic as well as add certain more roads to the map.

[kiranprasanth]

Kiran Here, The place I choose was Palayam from Trivandrum. I tried to experiment with a new way to look at Trivandrum's Layout map through Isometric/ 2.5D View. My process was simple, -Abstracted the existing map -Identifying land marks and illustrated them -Orienting the isometric View. -Putting it all together.

Checkout the map below! :D

[smokeybot7]

Schematic Map By Angela

I chose TAPS 1&2 Township for the Schematic map visualisation. The colony is a residential township for the employees of DAE, NPCIL and TAPP. This is where I spent almost my entire childhood. The map however, focuses on only the spots around my house that I visited very frequently during my school days.

1. Map of Boisar

2. Here I decided to focus only on TAPS 1&2 colony

3. A very simple outline of roads inside the colony and the places I wanted to point.

4. Hmm, well it looks very simple and I don't find much function in it. So I took up the scenario of when we had visitors and relatives came over to our place and how we gave them directions to our house. Petrol Pump was very important as the entrance to TAPS 1&2 colony was right opposite to it. (We didn't want them to enter through the BARC Main gate and make it more complicated to find our house 🏠😛)

   

5. And then came the 'abstraction' part. Hmm, its a colony full of people who work of the Nuclear Power Plant. How about the atom symbol for an inspiration? This time I took my school logo.

   

6. Wondering if that worked? Nah... But I realised the colony has got very systematic roads and zones almost grid-like in looks. So I stuck to basic geometric shapes and straight lines. (and rounded corners for the looks)

Here's the final result!

P.S I don't live here anymore. haha!

[tarunmugunthan]

Step 1 : Screenshot and tracing major roads and the river

Step 2 : Simplifying the structure...

Step 3 : Adding the smaller roads and highways outside.

Step 4 : Creating the map..

Step 5 : Adding landmarks, attractions, road labels and area names.

To be taken forward as a long term project. :) ~Tarun Mugunthan.

[VishnuPriyan1998]

Schematic Map of Tiruchirapalli

I started off with a screenshot from google, and traced the important roads, and other tourist attractions.

Identified any possible simplifications and abstractions, and abstracted it

Added more info and simplified it further by removing less important roads etc.

Finally fixed this as my last iteration of the schematic map.

[Abhi98krishna]

I chose the city of DOHA, where I grew up. Doha is a city by the Arabian Sea. The city is built around a C shaped shoreline. The first step for me was to identify a suitable angle.

I then marked out the major ring roads [A-F] and other important roads.

On further simplification

Another level of simplification to attain consistency in angles

After adding few of the major landmarks and final adjustments,

I'm looking to soon add more detail in the roads and terrain.

[VarunVikash]

[rasagy]

Thanks everyone for updating and presenting your schematic maps this week. Going ahead and closing this thread!