Fix my chart » Maps as guides
Welcome back to Fix My Chart, an advice column for all your data visualization questions. We look at real charts, maps, and tables, and figure out how to solve their problems together. Does your chart need a tune-up? Write in here!
Hello Rose!
So great you’re offering this service! I have a map I’m happy with. But I wonder if you can improve it! Here it is:
It’s for a blog post I’m writing on Petřín hill. I live in Prague. My blog post is for everyone who wants to visit my city. I want to make sure they know the most important places in that beautiful park. My blog post has descriptions and photos of all these sights. I created this map to give blog readers an overview of where they all are. (Petřín Tower is most important so I made it bold and big.)
Thanks for helping me!
Best,
Jan
Dear Jan,
You’re in an enviable position! This map is intended for a very specific reader — the tourist who’s visiting or planning to visit Prague. We can imagine in quite a lot of detail what Prague tourists already know about the city, what activities might interest them, and what practical details would be helpful to learn.
Have you imagined? Now let’s see how we can roll it all into the map:
What is it like to be a tourist? In my experience…
- You don’t have a strong sense of orientation, and the names of streets and neighborhoods don't mean much. My first step was to reframe the whole map to incorporate a major, unmissable landmark — the river.
- You’re planning out a whole day of activity and wondering how much it makes sense to fit in. Showing the direction of other sites of interest (I chose Prague Castle and the Old Town) is helpful here, as is a scale bar for gauging distance.
- You appreciate a certain amount of hand-holding (especially if you’re the type researching online in advance). Spelling out, for example, that the funicular will take visitors to the top of the hill and where exactly they can get on and off it, is a friendly touch.
This is where that got me — but you know your city better than I do! I hope you can combine this advice with your own ideas about what to do and see in Prague. For those reading along with us, you can explore the map in your own Datawrapper accounts by hovering over its top right corner and clicking “Edit this chart.”
Til next time,
Rose
My mailbox is open for your letters with questions, struggles, and every kind of data vis consultation. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
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