Three new chapters of the part Details of Ilya Birman’s Designing Transit Maps are out. The chapters are ‘Transfers’, ‘Directions’, and ‘Fare zones’.
The book speaks of transit maps history, important principles of their design, and how they evolve together with their networks. The author talks about techniques: plotting the lines, denoting the stops, choosing the fonts, and composing the final poster.
Few designers have an occasion to design a subway map. But the principles and techniques discussed are applicable to any tasks of complex information display: org charts, family trees, control‑flow diagrams, fire escape plans, military operation plans, project timelines, architectural drawings. The book sharpens the reader’s eye and inculcates attention to detail.
Transfers
It is hard to find a suitable designation for an interchange. It is not clear whether to denote them with one circle or several, or whether they should be circles at all; how to connect and paint them; if you use a gradient, how to make it look good; how to deal with interchanges in bundles and at intersections; how the designation depends on the length of the passage and the need to pass through turnstiles; how to guide the passengers to more convenient transfer stations; what to do if two platforms are named the same, but the third one is named differently. Ilya explores all of this in the chapter “Interchanges”.
Directions
A stop on a route may be made in only one direction. A route may run along different streets in the opposite directions. How to indicate this on a map but not clutter it with arrows? What to do if only one route from a bundle misses a stop in one direction? How to distinguish arrows indicating stop directions, route directions, and continuation of a line beyond the map? The answers to these questions, as well as some beautiful arrows, are in “Directions”
Fare zones
The chapter looks at the maps of the London, Berlin, and Paris transport systems, where the fare depends on the distance traveled, and so fare zones are used. Often zones are indicated with colored or gray background “clouds”. The prominent background makes it harder to read the routes in the foreground, but you can’t just fade the background: zone information must be readable regardless of the lighting at the station or the quality of the computer screen. The author shows examples of effective and ineffective designations.
Sample chapter
The chapter ‘Bends’ is available for free. In the chapter Ilya Birman shows good and bad ways to bend the lines, introduces the bend visibility principle, talks about harmonizing the bends in line bundles.
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