Our relationship with maps has always fascinated me. Whether in hard-copy or app format, we expect them to work correctly and be user-friendly. If not, we throw paper-ripping, phone-throwing fits. (What, you don’t do that?)
Why this happens, of course, is because the trouble with information design is that things can get over-complicated. This makes skill and finesse crucial ingredients. Or, as Edward R. Tufte explains in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, “Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space.”
But is that excellence possible in a map? Yes. And it is beautiful.
