Through an informal email by this paper's author, nearly 150 cartographers worldwide from academia, government, and the private sector were asked to submit their own list of telltale signs of novice cartography. They were asked to share ten things they think of as signs that a map was made by someone who is still learning or perhaps has failed to learn. The cartographers were not asked to rank the items in the list, nor were they required to provide exactly ten items in the list―in fact, some offered more than ten items, and some offered fewer. Nearly 100 responses were received as of January 1, 2019. The responses were compiled into a single text document. Content analysis was used to analyse the responses by interpreting and coding the text. Additional responses continue to arrive―those responses will also be analysed. The final results of this analysis will be revealed at the International Cartographic Conference in 2019.

1. Ten Telltale Signs of Novice Cartography
Aileen Buckley, PhD
Esri

2. Hi, [name]:
I am working on a little project compiling a list of telltale signs of novice cartography. The first
six that I thought of came to me pretty easily, then I started wondering if the others I came up
with were as obvious as I imagined they were. So I thought I would ask you what YOU thought
these signs might be. In a way, I’d like you to validate what I came up with as well as expand
my thinking. But I don’t want to tell you the signs I came up with – I would rather read yours,
even if you do not come up with a total of ten. I’d be very appreciative to see what you think.
And of course, I will be happy to share what I learned from you and the others I asked!
Note that this is really for my own edification at this point!
Thanks in advance for your help.
Aileen

4. Responses
• Started with my carto gurus
• Thought about responses being more different from mine
• 216 emails
• 114 responses
• Of which:
- 1 said they did not want to participate
- 5 couldn’t be used (e.g., map use, link to a web site)
• 108 responses that could be used

5. “telltale”
• A telltale is a small flag on a sailboat that
indicates the flow of air over the sail.
• The flags perform an important function as they
provide an immediate and accurate indication of
optimum sail trim (that is, the angle of the sail
compared to wind direction) and course to steer
(Jasper, 1987).
• As a consequence, they are the most important
thing for the helmsperson and crew to watch.

6. Equal Earth projection

7. Examples
• Ooh, this is fun!
• Using qualitative colors for quantitative data
• Always including a north arrow
• The use of the default ArcGIS scale bar
• Not much thought to fonts (using default system fonts such as Myriad Pro, or using
the default sizes of labels)
• Lack of clear visual hierarchy
• Rainbow color schemes! Unless someone is mapping something where the use of
rainbows is informative in

8. Examples
• Ooh, this is fun!
• Using qualitative colors for quantitative data
• Always including a north arrow
• The use of the default ArcGIS scale bar
• Not much thought to fonts (using default system fonts such as Myriad Pro, or using
the default sizes of labels)
• Lack of clear visual hierarchy
• Rainbow color schemes! Unless someone is mapping something where the use of
rainbows is informative in

9. • Stating the obvious – labeling the legend (“Legend” “Symbol Key”), labeling a barscale (“Scale”), title (“Map of….”)
• Mapping raw data in inappropriate ways
• Including text on the map to explain obvious things about the map
• Using discrete/unconnected colors (like red, blue, green, yellow…) instead of a color ramp for continuous classed data –
and the inverse, using a color ramp when you don’t have continuous data (like a county map showing counties that
bring in the highest proportion of their income from farming, from mining, from lumbering, from industry, from tourism)
• Choropleth map with a graticule surrounding it (I’m thinking like a county map of Illinois, no other states, but that
lat/long grid – kind of a “plaid” background)
• Including an index grid (___ is at A6) but no index
• Crazily detailed representative symbols
• Symbols for varied things that are all variations of the same shape (like different kinds of triangles or triangles oriented
different ways)
• Classified data in the legend but data falls into only 2 of (more than 2) classes – probably the lowest and the highest
classes
• Problems of visual hierarchy – line weights, font style and size, color (both hue and saturation), symbol choice
• Including the name of the projection used even though it really doesn’t matter (who needs to know a projection for a
choropleth map? – although it might be an interesting study – is the interpretation of choropleth maps impacted by the
choice of projection?)
• Using “web Mercator” no matter what/where is being mapped
• Are those spot heights in feet or meters?
• I can’t remember the name for them…. But crossing lines that connect place names with place locations (spider web
effect)
• Location map not the right context – showing where Illinois is on a map of the world or the western hemisphere instead
of North America or the US)

10. • Stating the obvious – labeling the legend (“Legend” “Symbol Key”), labeling a barscale (“Scale”), title (“Map of….”)
• Mapping raw data in inappropriate ways
• Including text on the map to explain obvious things about the map
• Using discrete/unconnected colors (like red, blue, green, yellow…) instead of a color ramp for continuous classed data –
and the inverse, using a color ramp when you don’t have continuous data (like a county map showing counties that
bring in the highest proportion of their income from farming, from mining, from lumbering, from industry, from tourism)
• Choropleth map with a graticule surrounding it (I’m thinking like a county map of Illinois, no other states, but that
lat/long grid – kind of a “plaid” background)
• Including an index grid (___ is at A6) but no index
• Crazily detailed representative symbols
• Symbols for varied things that are all variations of the same shape (like different kinds of triangles or triangles oriented
different ways)
• Classified data in the legend but data falls into only 2 of (more than 2) classes – probably the lowest and the highest
classes
• Problems of visual hierarchy – line weights, font style and size, color (both hue and saturation), symbol choice
• Including the name of the projection used even though it really doesn’t matter (who needs to know a projection for a
choropleth map? – although it might be an interesting study – is the interpretation of choropleth maps impacted by the
choice of projection?)
• Using “web Mercator” no matter what/where is being mapped
• Are those spot heights in feet or meters?
• I can’t remember the name for them…. But crossing lines that connect place names with place locations (spider web
effect)
• Location map not the right context – showing where Illinois is on a map of the world or the western hemisphere instead
of North America or the US)

14. DEMO

15. map 564 default 89 font 49 good 35
use 203 north 88 make 47 point 35
color 165 symbol 79 choropleth 46 inappropri 34
data 156 arrow 73 lack 44 includ 33
scale 141 poor 73 size 44 layer 33
legend 136 featur 71 area 40 scheme 33
label 112 north_arrow 70 etc 40 exampl 31
yes 110 titl 66 look 40 novic 31
project 103 visual 60 see 40 layout 30
element 58 detail 39 time 30
line 58 design 38 class 29
text 58 think 38 interest 29
inform 56 cartograph 36 map_use 29
hierarchi 51 choic 36 especi 28
thing 36 name 28
type 36 purpos 28
visual_hierarchi 28
general 27
space 27
white 27
bad 26
themat 26

18. map

19. use

20. color

21. legend

22. north

23. visual

27. Who responded about what

29. What is it about each topic?
• Read through responses
• Identify what respondents said about each topic
• Compile into guidelines for each topic

30. What is it about each topic?
• Read through responses
• Identify what respondents said about each topic
• Compile into guidelines for each topic
• For example, projection
- inappropriate projection; poor choice in projection for the purpose of the map
- using two different projections to compare geographic areas
- Plate Carree/geographic/no projection (this is by far the most common)
- central meridian off the map
- default projection which doesn't match the location of the data
- using any non-equal area projection for showing species or cultural distributions
- use of web Mercator (for non-web maps)

31. Learn from the response about not participating
• Don't want to single out novices
• They sometimes produce products that have more impact than cartographically
traditional/correct products (even when they violate traditional cartographic
practice)
• Positive lists of good practice to negative lists of bad practice

32. Future work
• Continue to flesh out the 10 topics using the responses to find out what it is about
each topic that is important
• Draft a primer targeted towards self-learning map makers who don’t know
anything/much about map making (e.g., GIS professionals who need to make maps
and want to make sure they don’t make grave mistakes)
• Point out practices they may find useful to follow as they learn or continue to learn
about map making
• Add notes in the primer about deviating from these practices
• Add links to other works to help them find out more about cartographic theory and
practice
•

33. abuckley@esri.com
If you have any questions or you yourself would like to participate in the survey
Thank you!

34. Presenter(s)
Demo Title