Mapping: An Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems

Rating:
Summary: if you're into mapping, maps and creativity
Review: i rarely buy books like this one, oversized, lots of photos, design-oriented, especially since i like to put off buying books, but this one's the exception to the rule. it has great, concise text and wonderful images of maps to accompany it. it offers examples of maps as internet navigation, printed maps and maps as information sources in spaces(buildings...). this is not a guide on how to make maps, or how to create great navigation, it's more like having a trampoline, if you don't jump on it you won't know how high you can go or what tricks you can do. this is the kind of book that can encourage you in your mapping endeavours, that doesn't consider mapping as an absolute, that exhibits appreciation for both the visual and the thought process that went into it. i recommend it to anyone who likes maps(not just geographical ones) and who sees mapping as a wonderful way of expressing ideas or creating new worlds.

Rating:
Summary: good idea, disappointing execution
Review: I work in mapping, and was expecting a trove of insight and ideas. In fact it is very hard work extracting any value from this book. First, most of the reproductions are scaled down so much the details are almost invisible to the naked eye. All you can see comfortably are pretty pictures. The book should be a larger size, and have fewer graphics - perhaps just one - on each page. And they shouldn't waste so much of the page real estate on blank space. Second, the captions on each page are in a small font, and squeezed between narrow lines so the effect is to make reading the captions difficult. This is so obvious, you wonder what those who produced this book were thinking. Like so many designers, they were much more concerned with stylish appearance than with usability. Third, the essays which introduce each section are sloppy, intellectually and even grammatically. "By making these new facts visible, and revealing the coincidence of logical and physical objects or the rapid oscillation and contradiction between global and local points of view, then we should have a better map." (I can't tell you the page number because the stupid book doesn't have page numbers.) Where do you start critiquing detritus like that? The book does present some interesting material, but it was doomed from the outset because it comes out of the design community. I'd expect cognitive scientists or usability experts to do a much better job.