The Importance of Overall Map Design: GOOD MAP/BAD MAP

Overall map design is a very important part of producing a quality cartographic product. If a map is poorly designed, then it really doesn’t matter how good the information it displays might be. The purpose of a map is to display spatial information in a format that is easy for an audience to read and understand. If an audience cannot read a map, or has trouble making sense of it, then that map has failed in that purpose.
Map design involves the inclusion of necessary map elements such as: a succinct title, an indication of scale, a north arrow, a neatline, a map legend or proper labeling, and a proper citation or source statement. Map design also involves the balanced organization of these elements within the map. A good map should not have large areas of empty or dead space. Maps should also be designed with a visual hierarchy that makes the most important elements of the map (the map itself, the title, etc.) the largest and most clearly visible parts of the map.

This is an example of a poorly designed map that I found on the internet. It is a township map of Okemos, Missouri used in a recent county meeting. While it would have been created knowing that those who would be viewing it would be familiar with the area that was displayed, it still lacks almost every important map element. It has no title, it has no indication of scale or which direction is north, and it has no legend. While the roads, lakes, towns, and rivers are labeled, there are what I can only assume to be railroad tracks that have no label. The roads are no different in color from the railroad tracks making them hard to tell apart. This map also lacks an indication of who created the map or where the information for the map came from. This map has plenty of room to place a legend and north arrow on the left side and a scale bar below. There is also room for a title at the top. This map is probably good enough for the limited audience of a county meeting, but there is really no reason for such important map elements to be left out. The lack of those elements leads to a poorly designed map that many audiences would have a hard time figuring out.