OUGD501: Context of Practice 2 - Practical (Primary Research Maps)

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Maps and wayfinding in Leeds:

I focused my essay on wayfinding and signage specifically within cities. I live in Leeds so I thought it would be beneficial to me if I went out into Leeds and took pictures of the maps to assist people in traveling around Leeds. I specifically wanted to look into the type and image based designs and to see if any of the maps used soley image with type only being used for the key. 

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Trinity shopping centre:

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University:

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From the photos that I took of maps it is clear that there are many variations of design aesthetics but one similarity, type and image are used in all maps. This might be common sense as it would be very hard to use a map without some form of type to instruct a user on how to function it. The aspect that I am most interested in is the placement of the type (bottom, left) and the use of image style that is being used, perhaps all of the maps are designed in a 2D format, unlike the Leeds Univerisity map which has some 3D elements to it. I think that by using the maps and looking at them from a designers perspective I can see that 2D seems to work better as it makes the map very simple to navigate and also lets the user put themselves into the perspective and cut out all of the unnecessary elements.