I admire and wish that I could emulate people who can create elegantly functional designs -- not simply something that is pleasing to the eye (though that's very good) but something that while pleasing still manages to satisfy a needed functionality.
For that reason, I admire the fellow who developed the KickMap, an improved version of the New York City subway map.
How he did it is described here.
Well worth reading, in my opinion.
3 comments:
Wow! That's so, er, obvious! :-) And so good!
Oops.
I was going to say "it's so obvious, no one thought of it!"
I've never understood the subway maps; they always struck me as too geographical. Let me put it this way - I was debating the best way to get around London within a few weeks of arriving there. The NYC subway? 15 years of living in NYC, and I still had to look at the map.
Great find, Bill! :-)
I understand that one of the noteworthy points of a subway map -- and I don't recall whether it was London or New York -- was that it showed when two points that are distant (relatively) on the map are in fact quite close above ground. His points about how he smoothed some lines, enhanced others speaks to some of that. I also liked the way he showed express lines.
I'd never really thought about how much non-subway stuff is put on a subway map before, but it's reasonable (unfortunately). You don't take the subway for the experience; you take it to get somewhere. Tying the station display into that makes sense.
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