Description

Maps are everywhere. The internet and social media have resulted in a tremendous increase of the amount of maps. These maps are created by both professional cartographers and map makers. In the media such as New York Times many different well designed map types are use to support daily news stories.

The question is if the map reader really understands what they see. If they look at for instance a choropleth map do they realize that the mapped phenomena is not homogeneously distributed within the geographic unit.

This research aims at designing and implementing an approach that informs the map reader of what they see. How can annotations help? Annotations are described as “a note added to a text, book, drawing, etc., as a comment or explanation”. Annotation might ‘appear’ on different levels: explain the maptype, explain the spatial pattern, compare patterns among different atlas maps, point to uncertainties, explain and guide the story behind the map.

Objectives and Methodology

To design and and implement an approach that allow the use of annotation to explain how atlas maps can be read.

Further reading

Ren, D, et al (2017) ChartAccent: Annotation for data-driven storytelling https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8031599
Roth, R. (2020) Cartographic Design as Visual Storytelling: Synthesis and Review of Map-Based Narratives, Genres and Tropes. The Cartographic Journal. DOI:10.1080/00087041.2019.1633103
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2018/03/annotations-adding-narrati...http://www.visualisingdata.com/2017/06/little-visualisation-design-part-38/https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/annotation.html