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Design Cartography: An Important "Extra" to Consider when Developing Web Sites
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by Derek A. Tonn When building and maintaining web sites, many developers will invest a great deal of time and energy inserting numerous little extras that are intended to make their sites more interesting and fun to visit. Many of these "extras" will include special types of background images, streaming video, audio or animations. While these inserts can help to achieve increased web traffic volume, they often fall short in giving visitors the information that they crave from the sites. Cute pictures and sounds can be fun, but frequently lack the substance that many Web users are looking for. With the tremendous growth of Internet technology during the past decade, a small but emerging industry has begun to take form: design cartography. Design cartography is essentially a blend of graphic design with more traditional cartography skills, resulting in the development of very attractive maps and building interior diagrams for print and the World Wide Web. Design cartography can take many shapes and forms. However, the most typical uses of this industry's services are to aid an individual's understanding of a particular spatial location, as well as to guide individuals to various locations across the globe. Institutional clients such as colleges, universities and hospitals are typical users of design cartography, as well as facilities that are frequently made available for special events. Through informal polling, several corporate and institutional clients have reported that as many as 1 in 5 web site inquiries to web masters concern a visitor's desire to obtain maps, diagrams and/or directions to facilities. This is an astonishing number, considering the fact that many web sites are developed with maps, diagrams and directional information as a mere afterthought. "What might a web developer do to incorporate design cartography into the web sites that they build?" you might ask?! The following are some very simple and cost-effective suggestions for you to consider. |
| Directional Maps Likely the most common use of design cartography on the World Wide Web today, directional maps can be found on tens of thousands of web sites. A directional map is meant to guide visitors from Point A to Point B, while providing information on additional points of interest along the way. Most directional maps are available free of charge for everyone to use. Services such as MapQuest and MapBlast! provide basic but very useful images at no cost to Web users. |
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| These sites will also allow web developers to imbed a custom map of their choosing within web sites at little to no cost. These services are design cartography at its most basic form. They have very good information about locations around the world, but frequently lack the aesthetic quality that many developers are looking for. They also can be very difficult for developers and designers to customize, forcing developers to use a static image instead of a custom image that is more attractive and relevant to their site. |
| Given aesthetic considerations, many web developers (or their clients) will choose to develop custom maps for use on their web sites. While this method is more costly than simply using a "canned" mapping service, it provides developers with a great deal of control over the content and appearance of the maps themselves. Information, such as landmarks of interest to particular constituents, graphics/logos representing the client or more detailed street information can be invaluable to visitors of particular web sites, and can be well worth the additional investment. As you can see, the Twin Cities Marathon chose to develop a custom directional map in order to highlight the race itself, as well as several landmarks and entertainment options located in the immediate vicinity of the event. While this decision will typically result in a minimum of $400-$500 in additional development costs, many developers and their clients will find the added expense well worth the cost of having a much more professional and informative map available to thousands of visitors on their web site. |
A specific example of the value-added of custom directional maps can be seen in the Twin Cities Marathon race map shown here. |
| Campus/Grounds Maps Maps of corporate and collegiate campuses are a rapidly growing sector of the design cartography industry. Many of these organizations have begun to develop 2D and 3D perspective images of their facilities, guiding individuals to particular locations within their campus boundaries. This proves to be a very valuable benefit to constituents, as access to "static" information through free web services tends to be very limited. Services such as MapQuest and Microsoft'sâ Terra Server provide access to aerial photographs from around the world free-of-charge. However, these images are typically several years old, and do not help to guide an individual to particular locations. |
| Two-dimensional campus maps are much more common than their three-dimensional perspective counterparts on the World Wide Web, with costs generally ranging between $500 and $1,000. 3D perspective images tend to range between $4,000 and $8,000, depending upon the size of the campus. However, the result of these images can be stunning. |
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| Developers looking to build visually superior web sites are beginning to incorporate 3D perspective images in ever-increasing numbers, and both 2D and 3D perspective images are beginning to be used as the "starting point" for hundreds of virtual tours in cyberspace. As Internet speeds and usage rates continue to increase, this trend will only continue. Building Interior Diagrams One very important but often-overlooked element of design cartography is the development of building interior diagrams. These images offer a very important resource to individuals looking to location particular locations within a building, something that is rarely available to the general public on the World Wide Web. |
| Building interior diagrams can range from the most basic images (simple transference of blueprint or CAD drawings on to the Web) to the very complex, and serve as a vital part of many emerging virtual tours. They also can serve as a unifying factor for clients working to develop a consistent look and feel between their overall marketing efforts. |
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| Building interior diagrams are frequently used as directional signage within facilities, in addition to their value on the World Wide Web. Typical costs associated in the development of these graphics range between $250 to $350 per floor, which can become rather costly when working with clients with numerous facilities. However, the investment in developing such images is lessened when you consider the value associated with multiple uses of the finished products. So, what does this all mean for web developers? First, I would strongly recommend that you look to work with firms that specialize in the development of maps and building interior diagrams to aid in these projects. You will be able to locate thousands of individuals and companies who will be more than happy to help you develop these images. However, the firms that will likely do the best job for you are the ones that specialize in this type of work. Just as I would not want to hire an individual who dabbles in Microsoftâ FrontPageâ (and nothing else) to develop complicated Flash and Javascript output, you should strongly consider hiring a design cartography firm to assist with this portion of your web site development. A simple search of the word "maps" or "design cartography" in most search engines will point you in the right direction, although a fair amount of research should be conducted prior to hiring a firm. As with any industry, price and quality tends to vary greatly across the industry as a whole. I would also recommend working closely with clients to determine their specific level of expectations, as well as the constituents who are being targeted for web site use. Clients that depend on hundreds or thousands of individuals to visit their physical location are a prime candidate for design cartography services, as well as organizations that actively rent their facilities to third parties. A re-seller of widgets, for example will likely have little to no use for design cartography services (other than possibly a basic directional map to their office and/or warehouse space). However, a college, hospital, entertainment venue, campground or conference center might find these enhanced services to be of great benefit. Finally, I would encourage you to conduct a very simple cost/benefit analysis when determining whether to incorporate design cartography services into client web sites. If the costs (both time and money!) outweigh the benefits that clients will receive from these types of images, it probably is not worth the time and effort. However, if your clients are hoping to develop a very professional appearance to their site and rely upon numerous visitors to visit their physical and virtual facilities, design cartography might be well worth the additional investment. Design cartography offers a great deal of potential value to web developers and clients alike. Clients appreciate the little "extras" that make their site superior to their competitors, and many web developers can use design cartography as an additional source of revenue, as many firms are more than happy to serve in a sub-contractor capacity. While the use of the World Wide Web as a source of entertainment continues to increase, the Web remains (and will likely continue to be) a primary source of gathering information for its users, first and foremost. Design cartography serves as a very attractive source of information enhancement for web developers and their clients, and should likely become a part of every web developer's checklist for developing world class web sites in years to come. About the Author: Derek Tonn is the President and Co-Owner of tonnhaus design, a design cartography firm based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His firm services clients across the United States, and has presented several e-marketing workshops at tradeshows and conferences across the country. To learn more about the services and history of tonnhaus design, please visit their web site at www.tonnhaus.com |
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