Schematic hometown maps

[rasagy]

Hi everyone,

As discussed in the class, let’s pick our hometowns and create schematic maps for tourists, or a specific use case. You can see some of the previous maps created on #53, #41, #48, #37 & #27.

Process of a schematic map:

1. Scale, Audience & Purpose
2. Blind map (Mental model)
3. Tracing relevant aspects
4. Abstraction: Grids & geometric shapes
5. Simplification vs Minimal
6. Elements of the city
7. Visual hierarchy
8. Details: Icons, Typography, Legend, Context

Here are some references to go through:

Schematic Maps:

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.

Cartography / Map Design: Essays on Digital Cartography by Justin O’Beirne.

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.

Resources:

Maki icon set for using quick icons under CC0 license, do try editing them in the Maki Editor if you want to customize them.

[jon-swn]

Waterfalls and tourist attractions near Shillong, Meghalaya

A lot of tourists visit Meghalaya for the scenery and the waterfalls most of them are around the capital. The idea is that the map will give a quick overview of where the most popular waterfalls are located so that they can plan their visit accordingly.

This is a screenshot taken from Google Maps, not all waterfalls are shown here just the popular ones, I plan on populating this map with this list from Wikipedia. The red lines indicate the district boundaries and the blue dots are the District headquarters.

Then I traced out the roads that will take you to where these clusters of waterfalls exist.

I had one issue here, since most of the tourists who visit usually visit only Shillong and Cherrapunjee in the East Khasi Hills District. So I was wondering if it would be better to zoom in on one location and show a map of that particular area. Also, I wanted to include one or two important landmarks that tourists usually visit that are not waterfallls.

After the first feedback session I dropped the lines dividing the district and focussed instead on the major towns that tourists visit. There were 5 main cities and I looked at the distance, orientation, and roads that connected them.

Then I sketched out rough shapes to show how the cities are connected.

SImplifying Shapes and Adding detail

The path towards dawki is not straight and there are many twists and turns, where people begin to get sick on the journey I wanted to depict that with the squiggly line

Latest Version

[AkhilGuthula]

A tourist map of Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam is known for its many beaches and nearby hill stations.

Scale: City + outskirts Audience: Tourists Purpose: To give a quick overview of tourist attractions around Visakhapatnam.

The following is the blindmap highlighting the important tourist attractions in and around visakhapatnam and the roads connecting them.

After tracing out, I realized few of the places are located far away from the main cluster of tourist attractions. The blue circle in the below image is the area where most of the places are located. In the next phase of design, I would like to zoom in a bit and emphasize more in this focus area.

Abstraction

[nishitanirmal]

Pune // Schematic Map of Open, green spaces.

Scale: City-level Audience: Students and families Purpose: To mark green or open spaces so that people who want to spend a few hours outdoors can find their nearest spot.

Scope: Gardens, Parks, sanctuaries, open grounds, and lakes. Doubts: 1) Definition of green spaces - Should I include areas with forest cover which might not be too popular or well-defined but are occasionally visited?

Shown below is my rough mental model of the more famous green spaces in Pune City.

The Mulla Mutha river acts as a good 'divider' of the city.

The process of abstracting the map:

SCHEMATIC MAP OUTPUT

The title is colour-coded and all the highways & landmarks are labelled, so a legend may not be required. Please open and zoom to be able to read the labels clearly.

[arinjitdas]

Important Shops/Commercial Areas for Students in Gandhinagar

Introduction: Gandhinagar is a thriving student town which boasts of many important tertiary education institutions such NIFT Gandhinagar, NID (PG Campus), DA-IICT, GNLU and so on. Though it's a planned city, coming here and figuring out where you can get essentials and important services such as printing/binding is challenging since it's not quite as developed as someplace like Ahmedabad.

Additionally, since the entire city is organized in a grid and lots of areas look similar to each other, it can be difficult to for newcomers to fully commit directions to their memory. The naming convention, which uses road numbers (Road 1, Road 2, so on) for horizontally parallel roads and Devnagari letters (Ka, Kha, Ga, so on) for vertically parallel roads, can be confusing, especially for non-native Hindi speakers.

Audience: Students in and around educational institutions in Gandhinagar, specially those new to the city. Scale: The entire city of Gandhinagar Purpose: Allow students coming to/situated in and around Gandhinagar quickly identify important marketplaces relative to where they live or study.

Blind Map

Based on my own experiences, knowledge of the city and its important points of interest, I sketched out the following blind map (which, after checking with the actual map, had a few errors but was directionally somewhat sound).

First Trace

I then took a Google Maps screenshot and tried to highlight educational institutions and important student housing areas in blue and shops/eateries/important commercial districts of interest to students in red. Certain key landmarks were also highlighted in cyan.

This gave me ideas about which places I might potentially be missing and what the map should indicate (such as symbols for eateries, photocopiers, clothing, toiletries, etc). I plan to refine the scale of the highlighted places a bit to provide them a little more prominence and including important pieces of information such as what is available where in the future iterations.

Map Abstraction

Based on the trace, I created a first pass of the abstraction of the map. In this iteration, the attempt was to simplify a few major roads and understand the broad shape.

Using the first pass as an underlay, I made a second pass, simplifying the major roads further and arriving at some sort of a final shape to the city, using the river as an anchor on the right and the Swarnim Park, a major landmark in the city, as an anchor in the centre. In the final version. I also tried highlighting the major circles or chowkdis. In the final version, I would be adding some more landmarks such as Akshardham and highlighting the major shop areas and label some of the sectors.

After vectorizing the map, highlighting the indicating areas of interest, the major roads, major circles, the Sabarmati river and some landmarks, here is what the map looked like. I have added more weight to the major routes and circles of the city.

Final Schematic Map

In the final schematic map, I incorporated feedback about mentioning the locations the roads going out of the city lead to, indicating North, and labeling the major circles. The final version also attempts to indicates the grid on which the city is based (road numbers for the horizontal roads and Devnagari letters for the vertical roads).

Circles are named as the combination of the vertical roads (for example, KA) and the horizontal roads (for example, Road 1) to make KA-1 or GH-4. The hope is that the inclusion of the grid helps new students make that connections and remember the roads and the circles better.

[rishi4git]

A tourist map of Udaipur highlighting the major lakes.

Scale: City Level Audience: Tourists Purpose: The close proximity of lakes makes it hard for tourists to distinguish them and plan an efficient route to visit all the other tourist places.

Close Look over the City

Mapping all the important roads and links to the important lakes.

Need to map out tourist places yet.

Doubts: In order to accommodate major areas map needs to be zoomed out but the details about the places in close proximity is lost at the same time. What could be the tradeoff here?

Step 2 Focusing on 3 major lakes and tourist places around them

Simplifying the Map

Improving the visibility of places and deciding colour palette

Net Step - Lable all places, Have a theme.

Questions: Can we further simplify the map? How to deal with white spaces?

### Further Simplification and final output

Map Exploration on a dark theme

[rajsreekanth]

Schematic map of eateries in Calicut

My hometown in Ramanattukara, in Kozhikode (Calicut) district. Though I live away from Calicut city, most of the weekends were spent there since childhood. Food is one of the things Calicut is famous for. Especially Biryani, Halwa, and Banana Chips. Being a coastal city, seafood is also quite impressive. I am targeting my map to a foodie who likes to spend their day in Calicut. I would also want to indicate some of the important landmarks in the city.

I started out by making a mental model of the city, by keeping the main bus stand as the reference point.

Well, when I referred to Google Maps after this, I realized I made a few mistakes. The park wasn't as big as I imagined. On the screenshot of the map, I started marking the important landmarks and roads.

Abstracting the map

Based on the feedback, which was to refine the abstraction, I removed some of the curves and reduced the complexity. Also, I increased the space at places where I felt the labels won't fit in. Then I tried adding the positions to understand the area I should focus on.

I decided to narrow the focus a little more.

I thought a darker background would make the markings stand out a little more.

I found some mistakes in the map when I showed to people who're familiar with the place. Also, I added the names of the roads into it.

[Noopurkumarikashyap]

Gardens in Chandigarh

16 famous gardens of Chandigarh

Introduction: Gardens of Chandigarh forms one of the important parts of tourism in Chandigarh. Each garden is unique in itself. Example Rock garden( varieties of the plants), Japanese Garden( represents Japanese art and culture), Botanical Garden( contains rare species of plant), etc.

Target Audience: Tourists and residents of Chandigarh Purpose: Find a path that connects all the gardens of Chandigarh

The following map is Map of Chandigarh, traced from OpenStreetMap.org.

Observations: One observation made was that there is already a grid in the way the sectors are divided( a very careful decision is required whether to go with it or not ). Another observation was that a specific path connects all the gardens. This path has been highlighted in the image below. Further, I would like to ideate if there can be some specific paths or order of visit that can be found depending on which part of the city one starts from.

Abstractions of the Map: I decided to go with geometric abstraction. A few rough ideations are shown in the figure below.

Based on the above ideation I decided to go with the last two( as shown in the figure above). I used a 3x3 rectangular grid in which each unit was further divided into a 3x3 grid. I decided to go with a rectangular form because its the most basic form that we think of when we talk about gardens in general. The following image represents the same.

Without Garden labels:

With Garden labels:

After changes, done based on feedbacks.

[raaghavlaxman]

Schematic map of Lal Bagh Botanical Garden

Re-Design Proposal Audience : Visitors at the garden Purpose : Better usuability & orientation

Map of Lal Bagh from OpenStreetMaps

Existing Schematic Map used in the garden currently The existing map is presented as a perspective view from one point of view and is used at various points in the park.

Rough Schematic for a re-design of the lal bagh map

Additional information : -Distinction between more manicured gardens & more natural areas in the Botanical Garden -Broad idea of planting related information (eg : flowering plants according to season, significant trees)

Process

Geometric abstraction of the map of Lal Bagh

Grid - 90 & 45 degrees

Colour Palette exploration

Typography & Icon exploration

Final output

[divoojilly]

Religious Places in Kharghar: Divya

Kharghar is home to various places of worship. Every year, during different festivals, many people from all around come to visit different temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches.

This map is for people of pilgrimage to easily identify where they have to be. It is mapped with well-known places in Kharghar as landmarks. It also gives them other places of worship where they could visit while they're visiting.

I first took a screenshot of Kharghar. From my memory, I mapped all important landmarks, highways and squares of the node.

Next, I started to map different places of pilgrimage based on my memory. On going to Google Maps, I found more places of worship that I would be adding to the map.

Next, I will be mapping more lesser-known temples, churches and mosques.

Based on the existing map, I tried to abstract it by using 90/45/30 degree angles. Kharghar is part of a planned city and hence much of the urban planning is already structured.

A computerized version of the same is below. Still need to map more details, surrounding areas and add text to it. (Work in progress) :-)

Final Outcome:

[tdeepikatiwari]

Hospitals/ Healthcare in Kanpur Below is a rough layout of hospitals in Kanpur I will try to map out hospitals based on localities in Kanpur. These will be further divided into public/ private/ trust

The audience can be visitors or students from other cities living the the city

The results on google maps are not extremely accurate. But further I can consider adding pharmacies near each hospital to make it more useful

Mapping hospitals against residential colleges

Map shows 6 zones with major roads connecting them

Experimenting with 3d Based on the above explored map, I wanted to explore the map in 3d.

Setting the layout

3d visualization with popular hospitals in each zone

Legend

Adding Details

To Do -

• Add road network
• Add landmarks for each zone
• Add names

WIP 1

[richavagrawal]

Work in Progress

Schematic Map of Powai

Purpose, Audience - To locate restaurants and pubs situated in Powai for college students/people who want to discover restaurants and pubs in Powai.

Started out by tracing the map, trying to identify shapes, grids

Selected tracing

Work in progress

Comments -

• Make the circular and radial patterns apparent
• Include landmarks that could help locate the restaurants and pubs
• Include clusters of restaurants

Final visualization

[dikshasingh13]

Mughal Historical Monuments in Delhi

Delhi is known for its historical attraction. In this assignment, I will be focussing on Mughal monuments in Delhi that tourists and students can explore. For convenience, I will also use the Delhi Metro as a reference. Scope: New Delhi Audience: Tourists, students Purpose: To give an overview of Mughal historical monuments in New Delhi I started by adding the boundaries and the monuments using Google Maps. To give the audience a context, the Yamuna river and Metro lines are added.

Further step:

1. Divide the monuments according to their type (eg. tomb, minar, fort, etc.)
2. Add detail to the monument's environment (eg. the park surrounding the monument, ponds, etc.)

For abstraction, I took the closest basic shapes of the metro layout and drew it around the center- India Gate

Once the abstraction was done, I added the locations of the monuments and colour coded them

Next step:

1. Add labels and define the shapes

After getting some feedback, I decided to change the icons so that the reader doesn't have to refer to the colour codes anymore and it is easier to identify the type of the monument at one glance.

After the feedback, a few more landmarks (like the bridges, airport location) were added to give user more idea about the approximate location and the context.

[sugandha-123]

A map for travellers - Nahan, Himachal Pradesh.

Nahan is a town and the capital of district Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh. It lies in the Shivalik ranges (lower himalayas), towards the southern part of Himachal. I have decided to pick the town and create a map that would help people, tourists, or other travellers, move in and around the city, as well showcase the roads to nearby cities.

Process

I began by picking an image of the town’s map from Google Maps.

And proceeded with charting out the main roads that go through the city. [National Highway 7 and National Highway 907A]

Then I added the cities they lead towards.

Here's the rough map sketched out.

I proceeded to try and abstract the above.

I switched to the digital medium and traced on the map, abstracted the shapes with a hexagonal grid, and rounded off the edges.

Next, I cleaned the map up a bit. I included an arc for a location that goes by the name of 'vila round' (lower right corner), which is a popular location for walks. I placed icons and labels, map descriptions, and the legend.

Based on feedback, I included the road hierarchies, detailed labelling, and some zones of the town.

[advaitmb]

Food shacks and small eateries in Powai Market

Audience: IIT Bombay students

IIT Powai market has a rich collection of small eateries including juice shacks, malayali restaurants, chinese food corners and midnight cafes. Students from IIT Bombay often get to know about all these only towards the end of their time in IITB. A schematic map would be useful for students and would also increase the visibility of local businesses.

Process

Started with finding the powai market on google maps and locating the area concentrated with eateries. It was also important that the market's location wrt IITB campus was visible.

Then I tried to draw over the map to find if there are any interesting shapes that are easy to remember.

It is easy to get lost inside the market, so using the shape of the market and dividing it into levels would be helpful.

The I tried to abstract the map into the shape of a sun and a mountain. The theme is a homage to the no.1 hangout spot for IIT-B students-- Sunny. The name of the map is: 'It's always Sunny in Powai Market'

Then I chose an appropriate colour palette that went with the theme and the resulting image was the following.

I have selected the following icons for the map:

Adding locations for the eateries

[raaghavishan]

Major Industries in Erode City

Erode is my hometown and it is an industrial city. The major industries in Erode city are textiles and turmeric. Erode is also called as the Turmeric City of Tamil Nadu. My idea is to map the major textile industry and turmeric suppliers in Erode city. Scope: Erode District Audience: Business People Purpose:To easily find major textile and turmeric industries from Erode Bus stand and Erode Railway Junction for the business people visiting Erode city.

Major Textile industries

Major Turmeric suppliers

Based on these maps I have made the mental map of the textile industries (red color), turmeric suppliers(yellow color) , Erode Bus stand and Railway Station (pink color square) with major roads.

After tracing relevant points in the map, I tried to find a shape in the map by simplifying it

Based on the feedback I reduced the scope area, I concentrated on the industries that are present at the heart of the city Then I created an abstract map with the isometric grid

Mapped the textile and turmeric industries, Based on the feedback, I have made the changes and finished the map Final Schematic map of Major Textile and Turmeric Industries In Erode City

[rounaksengupta]

A visitor map of Salt Lake City, Kolkata

Scale: planned satellite town within city limits Audience: Visitors Purpose: To give a quick overview of primary points of interest and help create a mental model for easy navigation

Salt Lake City was the first planned satellite town in Kolkata. But its planning principles make it hard to navigate for newcomers.

Moreover, in 2011 a large number of government offices were shifted to salt lake due to conservation efforts at writers' building, the primary seat of the WB government and bureaucratic offices. This vastly increased visitors to the township, as well as cars stopping at curbs and asking passers by about which corner to take to reach xyz office, even after the widespread use of google maps became normalized.

This is due to the lack of any significant/ memorable landmarks on the usual route, equal width of all the paths and looped plan of the township

The idea is to allow the visitors to get a general idea of the key planning principle and figure out easy rules of navigation that residents follow