Submitted by Memphis, who says:

This is a redesign project of the Taipei Metro Map with aims to enhance the legibility.

I first tried to make something like this three years ago, when I was a college student. Back then, to pursue an excellent looking, I gave up a lot of detailed information and lower the font size, the result looks cool but yet not practical (the older version).

After three years, I think it’s time to do it again. I did some in-depth research this time regarding the fonts, colors, icons, and structure of lines, which resulted in a bilingual universal version and two extended versions. If you are interested in it, please take a look at the full project.

Transit Maps says:

There’s a lot to like about this reworking of the Taipei Metro map, especially the use of a very strong unifying grid and some lovely typographical choices. Clan Pro is both more visually interesting than Helvetica, and has a larger x-height for better legibility — I like it! The consistency in label placement certainly makes it easy to follow names along the route lines, though I’m not sure I agree with centring names above station dots on the diagonal part of the Yellow/Circle line as it causes the labels to cut across the line for some names.

The bullet for the western end of the Circle Line is placed too far away from its station, and isn’t consistent with the way other bullets are placed. I’m also curious as to whether this map has been future-proofed for the eventual final routing of the Circle Line (though I understand some of the alignment hasn’t been finalised yet).

My main concern with the map is the removal of the line letters from station codes. While it could be seen as redundant to label every station along a line with a letter prefix, I think it’s actually valuable to help colour-blind users to quickly follow a route line from end to end. While it’s possible to work things out by counting numbers and a bit of trial and error, that’s not a great user experience. Bear in mind that red and green look almost identical to a colour-blind person, so Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station — where both the Red and Green lines change direction — could be particularly problematic.

A few more thoughts: A note that the Airport line continues on to Huanbei would be nice. Similarly, labels telling you where the HSR and TRA lines actually go would be welcome (the official map shares this problem). And while I can see why Memphis has removed this information, I do miss the little diagrams on the official map that explain the short-run service patterns on the Red, Green and Blue lines.

Our final word: Overall, a rather lovely reworking! It’s definitely worth your while to head over to Memphis’ project page to read about his design rationale.

Source: Memphis’ Behance project page