Schematic Map Exercise

[rasagy]

Hi everyone,

As discussed in the class, let’s pick our hometowns/city we are familiar with, and create schematic maps.

The audience can be tourists (general, or specific type of attractions like pilgrimage, lakes etc.), or a specific use case (such as cycling, educational institutes etc.).

You can see some of the previous schematic map exercises for reference.

You can follow the following steps for your schematic map:

1. Scale, Audience & Purpose
2. Mental model sketch
3. Tracing relevant aspects from OSM
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 iconic 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.

[suncheetos]

Purpose: Ahmedabad was declared a UNESCO World Heritage city in 2017, and there are more than 2000 heritage sites all over this city. As part of our Design Project, we classified these sites based on Places to worship, Tombs, Stepwells, Havelis, Gates in the city and Modern Architecture. Through this exercise, I’d like to create a map that will help navigate the heritage Havelis that are spread all over the old city area of Ahmedabad.

Scale: Old City of Ahmedabad

Audience: Tourists

Blind Map: To start with, I shortlisted 9 Havelis spread across Ahmedabad and created a simplified iteration of the map listing all these sites.

At first, I created a zoomed out version of the map to understand the area of location of these sites, and broadly, I found out that all of these Havelis are located in the old city of Ahmedabad.

Day 2: The next step was to plot all these Havelis accurately on google maps and trace the relevant details that will help navigate these Havelis.

Insights from today’s exercise: Each Pol (Neighbourhood) in the old city of Ahmedabad has many small lanes (galis) spread across the city. No one particular road/lane leads to each site. There are many ways of reaching one specific Haveli. Each Haveli is close to one another. The distance between Hutheesing Haveli (Point A) and French Haveli (Point B) is 1.8 km and takes around 24 minutes on walking (according to Google maps)

[soniyastellamc]

Scale: Fort Kochi, the vintage part of Kochi facing Arabian Sea, main venue of Kochi Muziris Biennale - the place is a melting pot of heritage, art and culture. People, both natives & tourists come here to spend time with friends, family, dates or even solo visits.

Audience: Young food enthusiasts, visiting with friends

Purpose: A fort kochi itinerary, with activities to do & food recommendations. Eg. Davod Hall is famopus for their pizzas, Kashi art cafe for their chocolate fudge cake, Kayees Biryani from mattanchery etc etc. [](url

[PridhiNehra]

MG road in Gurgaon is called as the mall mile as it has a number of malls right next to each other. People come there to shop, eat and indulge in leisure activities. Scale: MG road and the new Gurgaon Audience: Tourists and people who love shopping Purpose: Depict various shopping mall where people can go and shop and spend time.

[nitbot]

TODDY SHOPS IN TRIVANDRUM

Scope : Trivandrum the capital city is a major tourist attraction with it's major beaches and backwaters, is also known for its tempting coastal cuisine and coconut trees and then there is the Toddy, our very own organic alcoholic beverage . But that's just not it, alongside is served some of the delicious regional tastes you can find across the state.

Audience : Food enthusiasts and Tourists

Purpose : Mapping major toddy shops in town where people can explore more regional tastes and spend time with friends and family

Day-2 : Tracing and Abstraction

The next step was to trace out the area, taking references from both Google maps and OpenStreetMap. With major highways being a connecting strip across the Toddy bars.

And for the abstraction part, there was this overall form which is reminiscent of toddy pot outlined by the highways.

Update-1

Initial feedback : Bring in more details to the inner roads that connect the shappus (toddy 'shops') as well as continuing the major highways as they are, where it leads to... The Toddy pot form feels organic and closely related to topic. For the isometric grid, either tilting the map at around 60 degrees to line up the coastal line or change the angle to 45 degrees.

Update-2

[shriyawithani]

Context: Pune is known as the Oxford of the East. It is home to a wide range of educational institutions. In recent decades, the city has emerged as a major educational hub.

Audience: Students and professionals from India and overseas.

Purpose: Mapping educational institutes (tertiary education) throughout the city for a better understanding of academic opportunities across the city.

In the following versions, I traced out the major roads from the map of Pune and tried to simplify them by using different types of grids. The variations have been created with roads at an angle of 90 degrees, as well as 90 degrees and 30 degrees.

[disha-naik]

Topic: Cafés around Mumbai

City: Mumbai

Scale: Andheri West to Colaba

Audience: Tourists or Young Adults looking for spots to hangout or unwind.

Purpose: Mumbai has way too many places to eat. There are many one of a kind cafés spread across the entire city. To have a curated list of them along with their location would help find one in whichever part of the city you are located.

Blind Map:

Insights: The curation was getting trickier as there are a lot of cafes. While tracing, I realised that certain areas like Bandra and Colaba have many more cafes and their locations ended up overlapping on a large scale. Post feedback, one option was that I could do a zoomed out version and then a zoomed in version of a particular area. Bandra West would be easier to do as I was more familiar with the area as compared to Colaba.

Changed Scale: Bandra West

List of Cafés: Poetry by Love and Cheesecake Bombay Coffee House The Bagel Shop Candies Blue Tokai Coffee Chantilly - The Café Chaayos Birdsong Organic Café Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters and Bakehouse The Nutcracker Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea House Starbucks Barista

Tracing and Abstraction:

Feedback: The 45° Grid was used to abstract the map. After tracing and abstraction there was no scope for a metaphor. The busy areas with intersections needed to be resolved. The bottom portion of the map was too close to the edge. Space had to be left at the bottom by reducing some at the top. Thickness variations of the road worked since it’s a distinguishing factor. The main landmarks needed to be highlighted as well. All the roads could be the same colour.

Feedback: A halo should be given around the text which overlap the roads. Add the names of the regions. Fix an alignment for type and follow that for all: pick two. Make the text colour for green spaces green for easy association. Use a different variation for lines for the railway. Add intersections for main roads. Orient the labels properly and bring them closer to the road. Add in the element of water.

[AadilMulani]

Topic- Modern heritage architecture map

Area- West Ahmedabad

Purpose- There is an umbrella connection between all the heritage sites of Ahmedabad city. Since each of them has a very distinct image & history including old historic & modern architecture, it becomes essential to include and promote the recent ones to celebrate modern contributions. This map could help tourists to locate the 15 modern heritage sites in the west of Ahmedabad.

Audience- Localites and people visiting for the first time.

Blind Mapping-

• Finding what all lies in modern heritage architecture and clubbing each of them according to 5 different heads including Educational societies, Public spaces, Memorials, Public Institutions, and Government bodies to understand better.
• Locating all the modern heritage sites on the map of Ahmedabad.
• All the heritage sites lie on the west side of the city of Ahmedabad.

Tracing and Abstraction:

[ameya-agrawal]

Topic: Bakeries in Pune

Context: Pune is widely known for it's spicy and fried variety of food, but what often goes ignored are the bakeries. Pune is home to multiple bakeries, some of which that are almost 90 years old, each with it's own history and specialties.

Audience: Tourists looking for old original bakeries, or anyone enthusiastic for bread and cake :)

Purpose: There are multiple bakeries across Pune, each unique in it's own ways. Recently many newer bakeries have began to pop up, which use the names of the original bakeries to gain customer strength. This map will help people locate the original bakeries, and also help them tick off each one.

Mental Map

The next step was to trace out a more accurate version of the map. These are the maps I referred to.

This is what the traced map looked like.

Once the tracing was done, I started the abstraction. I tried out different ways of abstraction, using straight or curved lines, and different angles. These are a few iterations. Every iteration removed a detail of the map that was not necessary.

Based on the feedback, the last abstraction was chosen to move forward with. Using a 45 degree grid, the final form was defined.

Once the form was finalized, I decided to depict the two major roads as a different color to let them stand out. The connecting highways could be labelled. The bakeries can be depicted through the legend, which is what I've done in the map.

Here is the resultant map:

Work in Progress after Feedback:

[adrijatripathi]

Topic: The South Delhi Triangle

Context: The capital of the country is a collection of tourist hot spots and not surprisingly the downtown area of the city is extensively connected by the Delhi Metro. Specifically between the three most busy metro lines: ie. the blue, yellow, and violet lines.

Audience: Anyone planning to go out to town and visit tourist spots.

Purpose: Travelling in Delhi is very easy when you use the metro service. So the map is to help people avail the service the most effectively to travel across the city and visit iconic landmarks and markets.

Tracing the map:

Notes: The mental map got some of the routes and stations wrong. And the orientation appears different. One of the vertices of the triangle appears to be Central Secretariat so that is to be considered.

Process: Simplified the lines. Added roads below the map that would be required for travelling. Marked spaces that are notable tourist attractions.

[christina0101k]

Topic: Buddhist monasteries in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

Area: Lower Dharamshala

Purpose: Dharamshala is known for the rich Tibetan culture influence, and as a place for meditation and peace. This map aims to help people in navigating the well-known monasteries spread across Dharamshala.

Audience: Tourists willing to visit buddhist monasteries and experience meditation.

[Sayak2000]

TOPIC: Cafes in Salt lake, Kolkata AREA: Salt lake city, Kolkata

CONTENT: Kolkata is widely known for its food and cafes. while south Kolkata is the home to so many popular cafes, I wanted to put some limelight the hidden gems of East Kolkata.

AUDIENCES: Foodies exploring good cafes.

PURPOSE: There are multiple cafes across Kolkata, each unique in it's own ways. This map will help people who like to explore cafes locate the hidden gems of East Kolkata. . . . . . Mental Map

. . . . Traced Map

[Anshul-2607]

Topic: Sunrise and sunset points

Scale: Gwalior city

Audience: Tourists

Purpose: To attract tourists to these places which generally are missed out on. This will provide tourists with a calming environment and a beautiful view after their exhausting travel.

Mental Map

Traced Map

Map with only necessary routes

Simplifying the form

incorporating the form of the sun

Adding more detail

Final Map with added details

[abhishek9205]

Topic: Bus terminals across Ahmedabad City

Context: Every wayfinding system must include information about routes served in a digestible manner. Clear and straightforward information like schematic maps makes the system more convenient by reducing cognitive load.

Target audience: People traveling long distances (across terminals) by bus, primarily tourists and newcomers.

Purpose: The map would be handy for a person who does not know their way around the city via buses to understand the relative positions and major roads connecting the bus terminals.

Mental model sketch

Day 2: Map trace

![Trace2](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/84518569/145335156-fdd2aae1-cf69-4d50-9e44-c7eb9ecf6381.png

)

[Hisham09]

Topic: Football Grounds & Turfs around Malappuram.

City: Malappuram

Scale: Malappuram to Manjeri

Audience: Football lovers who're looking for a playing ground during their relaxation time.

Purpose: Malappuram is a place of Football legacy and madness. You can see people playing football in muddy fields and turfs all time. Also the place has been contributing a number of quality players for the National Team for a long time. So mapping out all turfs and grounds around the city will help local football players and new residents of the city to reach out to their nearby playing fields.

Blind Map:

Map Tracing:

Abstraction - Metaphor

Second Ideation:

Final Schematic Map after Feedback:

[Ananya99arya]

Topic: Darwajas of Ahmedabad

Context: The Darwaja or Gates of Ahmedabad were built during different times starting from 1411 as the entrances to the walled city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.These entrances to the city has a unique name and history. Pretty much the area surrounding these gates have adopted the name of the gate as the name of the locality. Each of the gate has beautiful carvings, calligraphy and some of them even balconies.

Purpose: Most people believe that Ahmedabad had 12 gates but some historian suggested to have 16. Later some Indologists found that Ahmedabad had 21 gates. These Darwajas are a must visit for all design/ architecture students and even tourists. The map would allow them to avoid confusion between the darwajas.

City: Ahmedabad

Scale: Old city

Target Audience: Tourists and students

CITY’S 21 DARWAJA

1. Shahpur Darwaja 2. Halim Darwaja 3. Delhi Darwaja 4. Dariyapur Darwaja 5. Prem Darwaja 6. Kalupur Darwaja 7. Panchkuva Darwaja 8. Sarangpur Darwaja 9. Raipur Darwaja 10. Astodiya Darwaja 11. Mahuda Darwaja 12. Jamalpur Darwaja 13. Khan-e-jahan Darwaja 14. Raikhad Darwaja 15. Ganesh Darwaja 16. Kharu Darwaja 17. Bhadra Darwaja 18. Teen Darwaja 19. Lal Darwaja 20. Salapas Darwaja 21. Khanpur Darwaja

I have taken Baradari Darwaja and Ram Darwaja as well. Ganesh Darwaja, Manek Darwaja and Kharu Darwaja have been excluded.

[Ishwari-99]

Topic: Sweet Cravings when in Kothrud

Scale: Kothrud, Pune

Audience: Youth living in Kothrud Area

Purpose: Often people tend to have random and sudden sweet cravings. Kothrud has a wide range of places from elegant patisseries to famous ice cream shops, to satisfy your sweet tooth.

[Arunjobnid]

Topic : Tourism map in Wayanad

Scale : Wayanad Dist.

Audience: Tourists Visiting Wayanad.

Purpose: Wayanad is a place of natural beauty with many tourist places to visit. Apart from the officially identified ones, there are other places which are really known to the local people there. Here I want to create a map with all the tourist places in Wayanad including the 3 major cities in the districts.

[apurva188]

Dating in Patna (Great cafes for a date in Patna)

Scale: City of Patna Audience: Youngsters (local and first-time visitors) Context: Patna (historically known as Pataliputra) is an ancient city that is nestled along the Ganges River in Bihar, northeast India. In the past three years, the city has seen emerging cafe culture. This is now becoming a lifestyle for youngsters over here. When it comes to taking someone on a date, they are shifting towards cafes so that their date knows that they’re cool. Purpose: Map would help youngsters find all the hip and happening coffee date places in the city.

Mental model sketch Went through my memory lane and made a blind map of the city. Tracing relevant aspects I started by tracing the boundaries of the city.

While marking all the spots within it, I realized that all of them lie in the center of the city.

So, I had to zoom in on the map and draw national highways and prominent roads to bring out the boundaries of my map.

Abstraction: Grids & geometric shapes Earlier versions borrowed its road as they were on google maps. But imagine a person walking or driving down a long road. He will always perceive the road to be straight despite the curves one sees in the google image. This is where I used abstraction in the map. I do away with the curves with the help of a grid. Abstraction helped in removing the cognitive load (reducing the amount of information to be processed).

In the further round of abstraction, the roads were straightened even more. So it is simpler to scan and easier to understand. I squeezed River Ganges to further detail the city. I tried to bring a diagrammatic representation of the map as close as possible to how people perceive in the real life. The distance skewed a bit and it lead to the map not being to scale.

Showing cafes in the legend I had two options for the same

1. Search By Name Every time one has to look up a place, they had to search twice, once in the legend and once on the map. That is double the time for anything. Alphabetical would work best when people know the place they are looking for. But not helpful for first-time visitors. The aim was to reduce this time.

2. Search By Groups Grouping cafes that lie in the same region. Suppose one is new to the city and looking for a cafe in Boring Road, but has forgotten the name of which one in particular. In that case, having the entire list of cafes under Boring Road helps. Groups segregate information and reduce the search area in the legend. Hence went ahead with this iteration. A map should also work in black and white. People might not have color printers. That’s why no color coding of groups was done.

Details The landmass was chosen to be a lighter color so that it does not stand out and get subdued to see other things like roads, numbers in the foreground. There is subtle contrast which creates an information hierarchy. The map was an information layering exercise. Each set of details was added in layers. For naming the roads & chowks, Futura PT was used. For naming the regions, Bree Serif Light was used in uppercase. The icon was chosen as a heart shape to show dating spots over the map. The same visual element was used to create a ripple in Ganges water.

and here's the final map :)

[Hisham09]

Data Visualization- Google Pay Transactions Duration: Sep-12 to Dec-13

Google Sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jmEH1XKv7LJG5RSM7_Sb8QtXVQSSJPhHQl0EBY1_y0A/edit?usp=sharing

Sketches:

[rasagy]

Thanks everyone for updating your maps, and submitting them on Classroom! Closing this issue now.