The Beauty of Whitespace In Maps
Having lived in several different countries and towns, public transport always has been a constant in my life and so have subway/tube maps. First time I arrived in London I was surprised how easy it was to navigate the London Underground Map, which in this form first was released in 1933.
(click for full size image)
The London Tube Map is a design classic and worldwide recognized as a symbol for London. When Harry Beck designed the map in it’s new format, he changed the until then standard geographical concept and decided only to implement the railway topology and not the geographical situation of London. Geographically correct the map would look like this. At the same time every non-underground clutter was removed and London had become a symmetrical pattern of straight and 45 degrees lines.
Although there are minor geographical distortions in the official London Tube Map, it’s beauty lays in the symmetry, the usage of equally spaced out distance between stations, the 45 degree angles and the usage of adequate whitespace. Even though the map features many subway stations (275) it is perfectly readable, even at smaller pocket sizes.
Becks’s style has often been imitated, been adapted by many other companies/towns, but never has anyone reached the same level of popularity with a tube map as Becks has with his London map. Both Amsterdam (NL), who even credit the London Transprt Museum on their map, and Tokyo have the same concept and perfectly manage it to ruin a great principle with clutter. Other towns, such as Paris, make their map unreadable with too much of text and too little contrast or add visual noise to an otherwise outstanding map such as Moscow.
Maybe I’ve lived too long in the UK, but the London Tube Map is one of the most brilliant designs I’ve ever seen and used.
The Moscow subway map is dazzling in it’s alien-ness. The Cyrillic alphabet is really a head-scratcher for western europeans. Actually traveling on the Moscow subway is totally nuts.
By felix on August 18, 2007 2:49 pm
I agree that it is definitely the best way that I have seen to display subway maps. In fact, here in Boston, the maps are definitely not as clear. Where does the underground become overground? And some of these routes are buses, but not all of the buses?… Then again, maybe it is just me.
By J David on August 18, 2007 3:29 pm
felix, I’d say the alfabet is less a problem than the double [station name] lines and the design noise created at conjunctions. The Moscow map IMHO also fails because of the thick circle borders at stations. I can’t really explain it, but the Moscow map feels really noisy.
David, got a link to a Boston map? Please without any ferries tho!
By Franky on August 18, 2007 5:56 pm
Chicago does a pretty good map of this type, though they dont’ distinguish between underground and above….
By Stephen on August 19, 2007 11:24 am
The Munich underground and express train map is very good, too: http://mvv-muenchen.de/web4archiv/objects/download/3/schnellbahnnetz_2007.pdf (it’s been in that style for at least 20 years)
By David on August 19, 2007 1:06 pm
Stephen, this is the London Bus map. No comment needed I guess.
David, thanks for mentioning the Munich map. It’s great example of awesome tube map design! I remember how simple it was to use the Munich map the few times I visited Munich. Much easier than navigating the Berlin S-Bahn network.
By Franky on August 19, 2007 1:15 pm
the seoul subway map is also pretty good
By gabe on March 3, 2010 1:42 pm