Charlotte’s LYNX light rail opened an extension of its Blue Line today, and a few eagle-eyed correspondents were quick to alert me to the new in-car strip map, as seen in this tweet by Steve Harrison, a reporter covering the opening ceremonies. After some poking around, I also found the artwork for the map here, which gave me a clearer look at it. You can see this version of the map as the first image above.
In short, this is not a good map, especially when you consider its placement above the doors of the train. The labelling is absolutely tiny, and the station names are at a neck-cracking 80 degree angle from the horizontal. The icons and numbers for connecting bus services under each station are absolutely minuscule: there’s absolutely no way possible anyone’s going to be able to read them from three or four feet away on a moving train. The bus icons are also overly detailed – zooming right in on the artwork JPG allowed me to see that they have bicycles mounted on front racks as part of their design!
Then there’s the spacing of the stations. While I guess it’s meant to give an indication of real world distances between stops, it’s completely unnecessary for a strip map like this, which really has just one purpose: to tell the rider how many stops there are until their destination. To that end, the inclusion of Interstate highways is also largely unwarranted, especially I-77 and I-85, which don’t really interact with the light rail line at all.
So, as is my wont, I’ve done a lightning quick one hour redesign to show how it could be better, just by considering the map’s end use and applying some common-sense design principles. My version is the second image above. Note that I’ve retained the vertical LYNX Blue Line branding panel to the left of the map. I don’t particularly like it – way too much Serpentine Bold Oblique for me! – but it does allow a like-for-like comparison.
First off, labels are much bigger for readability at a distance, and station names are only angled at 45 degrees for easier reading. Stations are evenly spaced along the length of the line to make station counting a much simpler task, and the two different types of stations are denoted by very different icons so that they can be told apart quickly. The connecting bus information is now larger and more legible, and the bus icon is a much simpler, more readily identifiable shape. Uptown Charlotte – the part contained within the I-277 loop – is simply indicated with some light shading, which sets it apart as being important without being too overpowering.
Finally, the final northbound and southbound destinations have been called out more explicitly than on the original map, which vaguely points “To I-485″ when parts of that Interstate can be seen at both ends of the map (as it’s a loop around the city).
To be clear, there’s nothing particularly special about my reworking – it’s a very quick, workmanlike redesign – but that’s kind of the point. Some simple adherence to good design principles and an understanding of the environment that the map will be used in have resulted in something that I think is far more legible and useful.
I have other issues with the original map, like the fact that the Charlotte Transportation Center doesn’t have any of its bus or streetcar connections shown, but they’re outside the scope of this quick redesign. Thoughts and comments on this are welcome!
