The London Underground (or the “Tube” as we like to call it here) has arguably the most iconic map in the world. The circuit-diagram style map invented by Henry Beck in 1933 paved the way for the way in which most modern metro/subway systems portray their transit networks today. Its success in aiding the traveller to find their way from A-to-B is a testament to it’s simplicity and as the saying goes “it it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“.
As the underground has expanded and changed over the years so Transport for London have updated and tweaked the map. Fair enough, but unfortunately it appears that their designers have got a bit carried away and with every new version it seems to be getting more and more complex and cluttered.
For an idea of what I mean just compare the 2004 & 2008 editions of the map:
London Underground Tube Map 2004
London Underground Tube Map 2008
I think you’ll agree that the differences are striking. The main things things which come to my mind:
- Adding background shading to show the zones is irrelevant and distracts the eye; when was your decision to go somewhere last influenced by what zone it was in?
- Adding the blue step-free access signs only helps a tiny fraction of the maps users and actually removes detail as you can no longer tell which stations are interchanges; why not have a separate map showing disabled access provisions?
- The new “London Overground” lines are a glaringly poor addition; they feel like they have been drawn around the existing map rather than integrated with it - is trying to bring together over & underground maps really a good idea?
- The tiny red symbols, indicating “Check before you travel” in the key, are completely pointless and only add more visual clutter; they look more like crucifixes to me!
So there you have it - how to ruin a design classic in four easy steps!
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Edward Tufte, undisputed master of information visualisation (described by The New York Times as “the Leonardo da Vinci of Data”) and PowerPoint hater extraordinaire, has posted a very interesting article and video about the interface design of the iPhone [via]:
“The iPhone platform elegantly solves the design problem of small screens by greatly intensifying the information resolution of each displayed page. Small screens, as on traditional cell phones, show very little information per screen, which in turn leads to deep hierarchies of stacked-up thin information–too often leaving users with “Where am I?” puzzles. Better to have users looking over material adjacent in space rather than stacked in time.”
He makes some interesting observations about the user interface and offers some advice for areas which could possibly be improved. The main point which resonates for me is that Apple have, arguably for the first time, solved the problem of displaying information on a small screen in a way which is intuitively useful to the user. By removing “computer administrative debris” (e.g. scroll bars) and introducing interaction by touch, pixel-wastage is reduce - “content is the user interface; the information is the interface”.
The fact that mobile internet has been a failure up till now can be directly attributed to poor interface design (and to a lesser extent bandwidth). It looks like that’s all about to change.
Key takeaway: “To clarify add detail; clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design“.
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Looking at the submitted designs in the “Love Your Earth” designboom competition, for artwork to raise awareness about the environment, there are some are pretty cool entries ~ in particular these two which are very simple but effective ~ the left one was the overall the winner [via].
I can’t help that worry that “being green” has become fashionable for the sake of ones image rather than the sake of the environment (no, recycling does not justify your Chelsea tractor). Climate change has certainly gone a long way up the news agenda in the past year, which can only be a good thing, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words…
Elsewhere… Here in the UK it’s finally iDay which sees the launch of the fabled “Jesus Phone” (their words not mine!). You know where I’ll be at 6.02pm tonight 
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