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New campus map, new perspective
"We
take something that seemingly has no room for innovation,
and with the right people,
A new campus map The UW-Madison campus has over 100,000 visitors every year, and many of them use the Visitor Map and Guide to find their way around. The current campus map had been designed by student cartographers in 1977, and revised by the UW Cartography Lab in the Department of Geography as the campus changed over the years. But last year when Campus Information and Visitor Center (CIVC) director Steve Amundson contacted Onno Brouwer, director of the Cartography Lab, their discussions led to the realization that a whole new map was needed. For many visitors, the campus is a place of memory, a place to continue—or start—traditions. Still other visitors come to attend sports events, admire the historic buildings, or to meet with colleagues in some of the most advanced areas of scientific research. Given such a broad audience, Amundson was aware of all the features and amenities that visitors couldn't easily find in the old map version, such as different types of parking, bus route details, and internet zones. CIVC wanted "to make it more user-friendly for visitors to navigate campus," said Amundson. More than that, the new map needed to help boost the image of the campus as a visitor's destination. Teamwork Four groups were assembled to work on the new map and visitor's guide project: the Campus Information and Visitor Center (CIVC), University Communications, Facilities and Plant Management (FPM), and the Department of Geography. Steve Amundson, CIVC director, led the team. Mark Harrower, Assistant Professor of Cartography, began the redesign as a project for his advanced Geography 575 course. Harrower teaches both introductory and advanced cartography, map theory, geovisualization, and graphic design in the Department of Geography. For the department's advanced students, it seemed like a natural transition to continue the work of the 1977 cartography class. The work was both an opportunity for students to get cartographic experience and to build a foundation for a new, innovative campus map. Taking a new perspective Faced with a map that had been basically the same for over 25 years, Mark Harrower's Geography 575 class took a fresh look at how visitors navigated through campus. "This new map gave us a very interesting and realistic challenge. What a great way for advanced students to learn about the realities of real-life work—the design challenges, considering all types of users, conflicting emails, deadlines, stakeholders, and production." They modeled different map features by imagining themselves as pedestrians, as a visiting lecturer, as a handicapped driver, or as a grandparent visiting a student. It was also important to consider the three-dimensional views of pedestrians and drivers. For example, the location of bus stops and the direction of a bus route is only important when on foot. At the end of the Spring 2005 semester, the Geography 575 student team had created a draft of the new map. The draft incorporated a fresh look at the basic map elements of orientation, scale, use of color, viewing perspective, and classification.
Once the idea of a new campus map had taken hold and received support from the Chancellor's office, a team of 5 student cartographers was hired to work on the final version over the summer of 2005. The summer team included students David Heyman, Heather Francisco, Paul Montesano, Ben Sheesley, and Aaron Erkenswick. Photo: Campus Visitor Map cartographers, summer 2005. (Front, L to R): Mark Harrower, Aaron Erkenswick, Heather Francisco, Paul Montesano. (Back, L to R): Ben Sheesley, David Heyman. The project started with unpaid designers and without a budget, but not without innovative ideas. To take the draft to a final version, the student team began with the map user. "We wanted to come up with the best possible map," said Harrower, "and that meant having no assumptions." Team member Ben Sheesley said, "When the summer team took over, we did some basic user-testing and naturally found that changes needed to be made. One of the major changes was to orient the map conventionally with north at top. One element that did not change was the planimetric map perspective which gives users a clear view of streets. Other aspects of the map's design developed organically throughout the summer and remained in a state of flux right up until the end as all of the separate pieces came together." Continuing in the cartographic tradition
Larry Bowring, a student in landscape architecture and geography, finished the original 1977 draft with pencil on mylar (inset at right). One student took photographs of all the campus buildings to get accurate exterior details. According to Onno Brouwer, the 1977 student team worked over 600 hours in map production which then included hand-scribed lines, manual typesetting and placement, color fills applied with peel-coats (open windows), and an endless series of negatives, tint screens, and proofs. The finished print-ready map had 25 film layers, and was printed in process color (CMYK) from 4 negatives with tint screens. This map was first printed in 1978 for the campus information office, and about 100,000 copies were printed every year until 2005, when the new campus map project got underway. New techniques add precision, realism For the new 2006 map, as different designs were suggested by each hypothetical user, the design changed and evolved. David Heyman noted, "I think any conflict we had just challenged the team to better defend our ideas or think differently about someone else's." They had to wrestle with major decisions that affected the entire map. Should they use two-dimensional or 3-D footprints for buildings? Which is more important—realism or simplicity? How can natural areas be attractively shown without unnecessary detail? To answer these questions, the new campus map employed several new cartographic techniques to improve precision and add realism to natural areas. First, the student team rotated the entire shoreline of the campus from a diagonal to a horizontal view based on satellite images. This rotation not only gave a more "driver-oriented" feel to the map, but also allowed a better fit on the page. (Compare rotation in the 1978 and 2006 map insets below.)
Team member Paul Montesano overlaid the entire map with an aerial digital orthophotograph to get the most precise location of not just large features, such as buildings and streets, but even smaller features such as trees, playing fields and footpaths. Finally, a digital elevation model (DEM) layered onto the campus area provided users a sense of height and contour through gradations of color for natural areas such as Bascom Hill. As anyone who has walked up and down our picturesque hills knows, the campus is anything but flat! Details give meaning It is perhaps in the small details of the map that the improved visitor's perspective is seen. The existing map showed the campus as isolated, with University and Regent Streets making a hard boundary between campus and the surrounding neighborhoods, shown only as flat green space (see 1978 inset above). The new map shows neighborhood features, and extends campus streets into and almost off the map edge to give a sense of the campus belonging to the surrounding community. New 5-letter building abbreviations for the visitor map were designed by team member David Heyman to give a more intuitive key for visitors. Parking areas are given a special section in the list of abbreviations to make navigation easier for unfamiliar visitors.
Natural areas, one of the most attractive features of the campus, are now on equal importance with the buildings. The map shows the Class of 1918 Marsh between the lakeshore and the hospital complex, with a nearby boat ramp and bicycling path. The natural textures of Camp Randall Memorial Park, the Allen Centennial Gardens, and the Muir Woods are highlighted. Much-used campus paths such as the Howard E. Termin and Picnic Point trails are clearly marked. "The natural features of the Madison campus," said Harrower, "are just as useful and beautiful as the buildings, and we wanted to visually make sure that visitors could take advantage of that." Projects are a process Working from the Cartography Lab in Science Hall, the group was extremely well organized. "We set up a simple computer file sharing system that allowed us to work on separate elements of the map at the same time and then make regular updates to a master map file," said Sheesley, "but everyone in the group was interested in all elements of production, which made design critiques especially fun and meaningful. We were passionate about the work and genuinely interested in making a great looking and useful product, and that's what made us an innovative team." Their organization also allowed them to work quickly, finishing the design well ahead of schedule. This cyclical process of imagining, designing, collaborating, and revising is the nature of real-life projects. Each week, the student team went through this cycle, working the list of 50-60 potential new features into the project's changing conception of what the map could and should do. Harrower said that the innovation process occurred not just in the student work, but also in the regular weekly meetings with stakeholders. "I think that most professional cartographers face the same challenges every day," said student team member David Heyman, "where one group has the data, another controls the editing and a third one is funding the project. Fortunately for us, all of the groups we were dealing with were on the same campus" which made coordination easier for all. Paul Montesano recalled one stakeholder meeting in particular. "I focused on coordinating a range of requests in a way that ensured that all parties who had a vested interest in the map had their concerns addressed. Specifically, the meeting was important because it made clear what people expected or needed to see on the map. This ultimately led to a more complete and functional product." "The meetings were important to the students' learning process," said Harrower, "because each student had their turn to formally present their progress to the campus-wide team and then had to learn to negotiate the arising differences and changes." This experience is quite different from classroom presentations, he said, because they had to please all the stakeholders and not just a professor. New look, new symbols
Furthermore, the entire map's colors and design also needed an overhaul to match the new coordinated look of UW-Madison publications. Aside from the look, new symbols were required that did not exist on the old Visitor Map. Symbols for internet kiosks, places to get food or lodging, and the direction of bus routes were added. An inset of the major interstates and highways leading into Madison was included so that visitors could get from outside the city directly onto campus all with one map. To verify some new symbols, the student team walked all over campus to mark locations or note what might be a problem for visitors. One of the most problematic features for visitors—parking lots—was carefully reworked to provide more detail. A more top-down view was also incorporated to eliminate the hiding of parking lots and road sections which was a problem with the existing map. "Some of the things we heard from visitors when traveling through campus," said Amundson, "were: 1) problems with navigating campus, 2) parking on campus, and 3) things to see and do while on campus. We feel the new campus map successfully addresses each of these concerns in a pro-active manner." Start to finish Once the design was ready to go to press, team member Heather Francisco worked closely with University Communications to coordinate the map details with the guide text, to adjust colors, and to assist the printing process. She helped to select a synthetic plastic paper for the 20 x 28-inch map, and was able to learn about different coatings, inks, and production contracting. Here again, real-life experience is invaluable for a student cartographer. "The final rounds of edits and the printing process were the biggest challenges for me," said Francisco. "Versions of the map traveled all across campus from Facilities and Plant Management to Communications to the CIVC and back to the Cartography Lab several times with various edits. Even after the final version went to the printer and the color proof came back, we needed to make some changes." In the end, Francisco and the team learned that often the process of printing a map may be more difficult than actually creating it. Yet, said Harrower, "the stakeholder team was successful and a huge part of the process. The students learned what collaboration it really takes to get a map from concept to print." "Working with Mark's team has been nothing but a pleasant experience," said Amundson. "Their expertise, insight and professionalism allowed us to produce a campus map that the University of Wisconsin-Madison can be proud of." The UW-Madison Visitor Map and Guide is available from the Campus Information and Visitor Center at the Red Gym. Departments may place bulk orders through Materials Distribution Services (MDS).
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Article by Melanie McCalmont, © 2006 Department of Geography, UW-Madison mccalmont@wisc.edu Contacts:
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A summer transition 
