Hometown Schematic Map

[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.

[rasagy]

Add your idea/topic as a comment

[Aarushishah24]

Since I've lived in Ahmedabad for most of my life, I'll be mapping out my home city. The map can be used for whoever resides or visits Ahmedabad!

This is the mental map I drew

Based on this I traced the actual map of Ahmedabad. At first I traced a little too zoomed in version and realized that it didn't work that well and I missed some of the areas that I wanted to cover.

Here is the geometric abstraction of the map.

This includes the areas marked for the restaurants/cafes that localites prefer.

[sarthokmazumder]

I shall choose Kolkata, my hometown for the project. And focus on mapping out must visit Durga Puja Pandals for first-time tourist. ( Second option is to map out cultural hotspots, both renowned and underrated for 'bong' enthusiasts and tourists.)

Since there are several existing maps which showcase pandal hopping destinations during Durga puja, I took the second option of mapping cultural hotspots and tourist attractions of the city.

PROGRESS (5 Nov 2020) Drawing out a mental model of my home, city and places I know of, the scale is heavily distorted.

Next, tracing out my city from Open-Source maps. The boundary is set by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The other well-known map of Kolkata is too big and accounts for several towns beyond the main city, and thus am not using it. Locating the hotspots in relation to the traced out main highways, roads and metro lines. The orange area is a suburb locality considered Kolkata but not part of the main city. Traced for personal context.

Tilting the map a bit anticlockwise and simplifying the traced boundaries and roads.

Trying to make out abstract or geometric shapes. The second and third abstraction of the bird and stomach feel forced. No contextual abstraction or shape was formed.

Simplifying the roadways and metros on the map based on a grid.

Questions Do I zoom into the city a bit more to focus on the hotspots and remove excess area? Should I reduce the roadways? How shall I depict the hotspots other than just locations?

FEEDBACK I can zoom into the map, and remove unwanted areas, and show the context using inset maps. Elements that do not relate to the context i.e. cultural hotspots need to be removed for clarity. Focus more on creating the map based on context, and take some subjective liberties that are best suited to convey the purpose. Every element needs to be simplified to a grid (not separately)

PROGRESS (6 Nov 2020) Observing a clear concentration of selected locations in the central region of Kolkata. The faraway points can be depicted through elongated roadways that vaguely depict its presence. Keeping the river which is an iconic element of the city.

Tracing the focus area using OpenSource maps and markers from Geojson.io

Tilting the trace and simplifying it based on a grid.

Trying to create an inset map, create a geometric boundary for our focus area, and depict the far away places.

PROGRESS (8 Nov 2020) Extracting out an abstract boundary of the focus area which depicts a pot or vase (potpourri, a melting pot of cultures). Labelling the locations and correcting some details.

Question: The orange metro line almost coincides with the main road. So do I depict both using two separate lines, which might be messy, or just depict the metro line. And if the latter, how do I convey the presence of a road.

FEEDBACK The locations should be in complete focus. Need to lighten the colours of the park, and desaturate the background. The roads need to be in equidistant spaces or else unequal spaces stick out visually. Need to label the roads and metro and the places they go to. Using gestalt, of similar colour, outer glow or type to ensure the visual hierarchy and grouping of similar elements. Need to remove the smooth curves that create an awkward combination with the other sharp lines and shape. Reduce wasted space.

PROGRESS (9 Nov 2020)

Using some icons to depict the kind of places mapped out

FEEDBACK The line icons are no quite clear. Need to simplify them further. Differentiate the metro from the road using dashed lines. Increase the outer glow of text for more visibility.

[purvanshis]

I have been fascinated by Paani Puris and street food for the past 21 years. I would like to create a map that helps people explore local street food with safety and good experience. I choose Nagpur as I have grown up here and am aware of good places round the corner :)

As i started out I realised i had to funnel down the are of interest for better understanding of this assignment.

focusing on the main city where all the action happens and discovering that west nagpur is more hopping in terms of safe food joints. I narrowed down the are of interest further

This map is quite the representation of safe street food vendors and established joints along with the safest MNCs that are in the city for any visitor to navigate

need feedback on this on how can I improve this

adding the landmarks and more clarity.

Adding the names of the streets

[adrijatripathi]

I thought of mapping the metro system mainly in South Delhi, because I'm very familiar with the routes, and I thought it would be very interesting to see how connectivity increased over time :D

[NamahaS]

I’ve lived in Thane almost all of my life and know the city pretty well. Thane is known as the lake city and has many pretty lakes which are visited often by the locals and make great spots to visit by a tourist. So I have chosen to map the lakes of Thane. As for an alternative, I was also interested in mapping the popular food joints of Thane.

[SrishtiMitra]

I've lived in Pune my whole life. I want to make a map showing how the city built up over the years, from early kingdoms to Marathas to British etc. It will be for people interested in the rich history of Pune (tourists/students) and might also serve as a guide to the Maratha/British hotspots of the city.

My mind map:

Traced roads over the zoomed out map, which contains many areas I don't plan on mapping:

Zoomed in to the area of interest:

Possible simplifications, can be simplified further:

I chose the angular style as Pune doesn't have any discernable circular road structures.

Plotted the old buildings/structures I wanted to show on the map to help me simplify roads:

Taking into consideration the location of the structures, I began removing unnecessary roads and adding some important roads that weren't visible at the scale of the map I had used for tracing: (midway picture)

Cleared it up a bit and plotted the locations, I also indicated the areas of primarily Maratha occupation and British occupation:

The previous map wasn't very exciting. For a better understanding of the history of the locations and how long they've been a part of Pune's heritage, I colour-coded the squares so that at a glance you can get a rough idea of how old the structures are. You can also guess what sort of architecture you will see while walking through a certain part of the city, which was a goal of mine from the beginning. This map can help you plan heritage walks or tours:

The information was looking too dense so I changed the typography to give some variation between year and name.

Working on feedback: One colour scheme for British and one for Maratha structures. Different icons for both to cater to colourblind people. Changed some shapes according to area. (Shaniwar wada, bridges). Changed width of roads.

Changed the title typeface to a serif so that it seems more 'heritage'-like. Added outside connections and labelled well-known areas in the city (again in serif to differentiate it from other labels). Wrote a small paragraph about the history of Pune to provide some context.

Followed feedback to change road colour, brought the expositionary text down to give the map some breathing space few other minor changes. Final map:

[paridhiyadav]

The entire process on https://paridhiyadav.medium.com/schematic-mapping-of-shopping-places-in-delhi-2d52f1eb640e

Street shopping places in Delhi for people who are interested in cheap window shopping scenes in Delhi

/Progress of 06.11.2020

• Shortlisted 11 spots suitable for window shopping. Due to the large distance and my horrible spatial memory, a Memory Map wasn't possible.
• Started with mapping out on Google Maps and drawing the map as it is. Then proceeded to study and draw the Delhi Metro Map by INAT (because most of the spots fell in the Metro Map)
• In Iteration #03, noticed that the spots themselves can be radially arranged. Combined this with the INAT map (which also followed a similar grid) and created iteration #04

Scope of improvement in #04: 1) Should the outermost circle (encompassing Kamala Nagar Mkt) be on the same circle as the pink line? Does this add more symmetry? 2) [Pretty sure about this, I should change it in the next iteration] Because Sadar Bazaar doesn't come on the yellow line, it shouldn't be marked on the central axis. 3) Should all metro stations be marked in the final Map to help the reader understand and navigate? Probably in a lower opacity? 4) Should other attractions like India Gate, Lal Quila also be added on the map or will it only add noise?

[Delhi Map_Assignmen 4_Iteration Level01_Paridhi Yadav.pdf](https://github.com/mapschool/course/files/5496341/

/fairly spread out and has a lot of white space

[ch-ndik]

Kozhikode, my hometown is a small city with a rich variety and background on food, from Kerala sadya to Kozhikode biriyani and lot of snacks. Therefore a map which connects all the famous food points in the city would be a interesting factor. The map could be mainly used by tourists and also by locals to explore the less famous places in the city.

[vamagupta]

There is not a lot to say about Surat, but its a charming city, full of jolly people who love their weekend breakfasts. So a breakfast/farsan tour of some sorts?

Medium link : https://medium.com/@vama_g/7-best-farsan-shops-for-you-and-your-getaway-driver-bff-33cac6c6d17c

[adityakum197]

Most recent memories of mine is from the city of Tel-Aviv and it's a young city with very active night life and most of the tourist are seeking for fun places to chill and hangout and hence I decided to change my topic to top clubs/bars in Tel-Aviv.

[yashaswinikaturi]

I will work on Rajamahendravaram a city in AP I'm very familiar with and try to map out the best food places for people who are looking for a place to hang out.

mind map of the listed places

marked them

map of urban Rajamendravaram/Rajahmundry

outline of the map along with the streets of selected spaces,

not sure if that supports the information in any way!

attempts at simplifying the map

wip-problems with hierarchy

feedback- change the green line, more work on text alignment

[veduttam]

I come from a city which is popular for all the wrong things. But Kanpur, despite being industrial and polluted, has its own charms. I will be highlighting such spaces in this city through this exercise which can change the perception of the people visiting Kanpur.

[PrernaShaurya]

I will work on Chapra, a city where I am currently living at and try to plot Schools. This can help parents and students during admission time. But, I am confused because there is no detailed map of Chapra on Open street map. My Second option: Places to visit in Patna, Bihar. (tourist and entertainment)

[xeriabi]

Hi, I am Vivek, I am thinking of working on a map for Gwalior. Navigation to tourist hotspots. or focus on particular area: Gwalior Fort Plateau.

Memory map

Areas of interest

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h51XGtgvZ_DTbykLpCxKc2VVvvxhZI0i/view?usp=sharing

final map

[rahlgrsh]

Hi, I am Rahul Girish. I've lived all my life in Irinjalakuda a city in the Thrissur district of Kerala. So I wanted to do a map of scenic places which are not very famous in a 40km radius around the town. where people can go for small picnics or rides.

[Devanshuchauhan007]

I would like to work on Dehradun city . Mapping some interesting and popular cafes in Dehradun. or Some interesting places for tourists - a plan for one day visit.

[christina0101k]

I will work on the night food culture in the old city of Ahmedabad.

Open pdf

FINAL.pdf