Recently, I’ve stumbled across Noah Iliinsky’s Where 2012 talk When To *Not* Use Maps.
The title immediately intrigued me. As a geographer and data consultant I’m convinced, an important part of my work lies in the question what tools best fit a purpose or a goal I want to achieve.
But this is only one side of the coin: I think it’s equally about knowing when not to use the tools that one is most familiar with. And when to educate oneself on other tools or collaborate with experts from other subject areas. You know, when you carry a hammer etc.
In his talk, Noah Iliinsky lists the following questions as helpful heuristics for when to (not) use maps:
- Is location information meaningful?
- Is location the most important relationship?
- How relevant is geographic detail?
I agree. Go watch the rest of the talk: it’s entertaining and educative.
Addendum: Junk Charts‘ map tag is a good place to look for other examples of unsuccessful map use or successfully avoided map use.