A survey of the visual design of cartographic and other elements of illustrated tourist maps

Abstract

The use of tourist maps has become an important part of many people's travel experiences. Design of tourist maps is far from being a straightforward task-requiring the knowledge of cartography, visual design, and visualization. This is particularly true for Illustrated tourist maps, which are supposed to be easier to understand and use by travelers from different backgrounds due to their use of illustrations for communicating map information. Most such maps, however, are designed for better visual aesthetics than necessarily for more accurate cartographic information. This paper presents a survey of illustrated tourist maps, with the aim of identifying and categorizing their common cartographic and other illustrated elements, as well as the visual styles used to represent those elements, and the functions they provide.