11-20, 12:00–12:25 (Pacific/Auckland), WG403
People love to throw everything including the kitchen sink onto their maps mistakenly thinking more information is better. This leads to a mental burden, making the map harder to read and putting some readers off entirely. This talk will cover designing maps which are clear, uncluttered and support the viewer.
People love to throw everything including the kitchen sink onto their maps mistakenly thinking more information is better. This leads to a mental burden, making the map harder to read and putting some readers off entirely.
The talk was given at FOSS4G Oceania in 2023 and was inspired by the work of Edward Tufte and how my approach to cartography has changed over the years.
In this talk, I will cover designing maps which are clear, uncluttered and support the viewer. I discuss how links to other concepts, such as visual hierarchy and layout, the history of thinking about clutter with Tufte and Cairo, cover the idea of the elegant and the invisible, as well as how to keep your viewer foremost in your mind. This talk will be more focused on cartography theory rather than practice with open source tools, however it willl give examples using QGIS.
I am a skilled cartographer, spatial developer and QGIS superuser with a passion for open source and open data. I lead the Analysis and Visualisation Squad at Toitū Te Whenua - Land Information New Zealand, and love the cartography and FOSS4G community here in Aotearoa. I may also be slightly obsessed with the Montserrat font, a turquoise and orange colour palette, and board games.