Losing Context - Bryan Haggerty

Dying Maps and Their Successors

I am a lover of maps. I have books about maps, my walls have been covered in maps (even a 5ft x 5ft MTA map at one point), and I’ve even written about maps. Which makes it not surprising that this past Christmas I received more than one gift which was a map.

In preparation for my move west to San Francisco my mother gave me a Streetwise waterproof folded map of San Francisco. Something to toss in my bag to always have. Yet, the more I look at the map, or rather don’t look at the map, I realize the obsolescing of this map form factor–and likely a chunk of Streetwise’s and other map makers’ business.

Forgoing Paper for Digital

I have all but abandoned paper maps in favor of web based maps and mobile phone maps. The last bastion of paper maps, of which I carry, are small wallet sized versions of New York’s MTA map and a San Francisco transit map. As in many underground trips, getting wireless connectivity can be a challenge if not impossible–hence these wallet maps can come in handy but their days are probably numbered (BART surprisingly has a decent bit of underground wireless coverage).

Software such as Google’s Maps for mobile, with the My Location feature which repositions the map to your current location, have made orienting yourself utterly simple with no additional hardware needed. Also, interacting with the map via search has made finding any address or business all the more easy.

Even many of the traditional niche maps such as those for transit or bikes, which most people would carry in their pocket, have been converted to mobile device ready versions–iSubway Maps or Khoi Vinh’s MTA map for iPhone. We now have more than just “a thousand songs in our pockets.”

Adding a More Physical Connection to Maps

iPhone Map showing a user’s contact near them

It won’t be long before the mobile versions of maps take on a more social component as well, such as being able to see which of your friends may be in the neighborhood or at a particular restaurant or bar near where you are.

And in terms of wayfinding, people often utilize landmarks to get around. Surely, we’ll be seeing Google add their StreetView feature to their mobile edition of maps. Thus allowing users to get an actual visual of the location they’re seeking.

These are all features which no paper map could ever provide. But there are still a few paper alternatives which deserve a mention.

Hangers On

While I find the wallet maps still somewhat useful, SUCK UK’s Tubemap Wallet takes it one step further by turning the actual wallet into the map–clever. There is also Moleskin’s efforts to throw in a few handy maps with their pint size notebooks.

Location Aware City Alert System

Google Maps mobile, displaying location based on cell tower usage

Keeping people informed with timely, contextually relevant emergency, transportation and other public interest information can prevent people from getting in harm’s way or to plan more accordingly to subway delays, just to list a few. Unfortunately, such information is often posted after the fact or on some obscure website that people need to check to discover if there is an issue. And major news outlets are typically not useful for the more macro information which affects people’s daily lives.

New York City has just begun testing a mobile phone SMS alert system for selected areas, called Notify NYC, similar to San Francisco’s Alert SF.

But there is one problem inherent in these types of systems. They require setting which locations of the city to receive updates about. While people generally have a consistent routine, they are always on the move, and that means these systems leave potential gaps. Undoubtedly, people are at a greater risk in unfamiliar areas in regards to evacuation routes, locations of police and fire stations and hospitals.

Communicating every update regardless of a person’s location will greatly increase communication noise and decrease the effectiveness of the system and people’s perceptions of its quality–likely causing people to disregard updates or opt out of the system all together. To augment the current implementation, location specific messages should be sent to opted in people based on the cell tower which their phone is currently connected to. Thus providing contextual alerts, without any prior configuration of location preference.

Reducing the New York City Subway Map

As a New Yorker and avid subway fan, each day I admire the New York City subway map, designed by Michael Hertz. It is certainly a great piece of graphic design and a cultural icon of the city. Its representation of subway lines and geography is burned into many of our heads. I sought to reduce the map to its simplest form, the contouring lines which depict each subway line’s route. To remove the geographical context in order to expose the grand complexity of this weaving system of people movers.

This reduction evokes an interesting view into the history, sprawl, and the expansiveness of New York City’s subway. Through abstraction of the subway map, the often spoke of, subway as the arteries of the city, is made unequivocally clear. No borough or neighborhood is given prominence, only its veins are shown, almost like a medical illustration of the human circulatory system.

Through breaking down the gestalts of the subway map, with each layer different interpretations can be made. The map below could certainly be broken down more to emphasis different components.

Thanks Jeannie for the illustrator help

New Job, New People, New York City

On Saturday, July 30th, I will be leaving Boston on a one-way trip down to New York City. Next week I start my new job at JPMorgan Chase in Midtown Manhattan.

At JPMorgan Chase I will be working as a user interface designer and information architect within the Global Credit Risk Management division (that sounds so much more complex in writing). I will be the fourth member of the User Experience group. From what I have gathered from my conversations and meetings with them they are very friendly and chill people–much like how I see myself.

Starting work could not have come at a better time. Most recently I have been missing that stimulation I get when I design and write. While I have enjoyed my time off, getting back into a creative atmosphere will surely be welcomed.

But before I can get back to working I need to move. Having lived in the same apartment for the past three years I, luckily, have avoided the stress of moving. Prior to my current place, my roommates and I moved quite frequently. Each time when we moved we cleaned house by dumping all the junk we’ve accumulated. The unfortunate side of not moving often is the glut of junk I have built up. Therefore, I’m left with the daunting challenge of determining what junk I want to throw away and the junk I want to keep. It is somewhat comical how I have stuff I keep that I only come across when I move.