A Map isn’t simply about sharing geographical details: it frames your relationship to that information
In a lovely chapter entitled ‘Tools of the Mind’, Nicholas Carr discusses the connection between cartography and thought processes:
The map is a medium that not only stores and transmits information but also embodies a particular mode of seeing and thinking. (p41, The Shallows)
The idea of a seeing ‘mode’ was central to my thinking as I designed this map for newcomers arriving at Cardinal Newman Catholic High School.
Some process notes: now in timelapse form!
Here is a one minute video of the process.
The thinking behind the design
It became clear early on that CNCS has a complicated layout. In figuring out how to find a solution I found myself returning to Scott Berkun’s Four Key Design Questions:
What are you trying to improve?
Who are you trying to improve it for?
How do you ensure you are successful?
Who might be hurt by your work (both now and in the future)?
So what were we trying to improve - and for whom?
Newcomers to the school who need a quick way of grasping the ‘zones’ and ‘arteries’ of CNCS.
Success criteria
In developing the map it was great to speak with people who had recently ‘learnt’ to navigate the campus. The most useful conversation I had was with a current year 8 student. First term confusion was still fresh in her mind and proved a valuable experience to dig into. I learnt that after a couple of weeks most students are competent at finding their way following others and muddling through, but there was still a need to speed this process up (plus: not all visitors have two weeks for exploration).
I started with the idea of creating a set of room-by-room exploded floor diagrams: similar to the Sussex University map (below). But after a short time of breaking everything down, the complexity became a bit of a concern. It seemed to me that there were three problems to solve when finding your way around a new school:
What the main buildings are
How they link to each other
How you find your way inside each one
You can see how this might have gone - fortunately this approach was rejected.
Example of a map I produced for Sussex uni.
After some reflection and deliberation with Jo Henderson (the marketing and communications manager) we decided that solving the first two problems was the best use of our time. In my mind it was rather like a London Tube map consisting of stations/zones and lines/arteries connecting them. To my relief this was now the settled plan.
In posing the the question “How will you know if you are truly successful?” - one can’t really know until mid-September but I am confident that we have arrived at something that will improve the experience of people visiting the school. I love that Jo Henderson has termed this as ‘phase 1’ of an ongoing project. Being able to return to this in a few months to consider incremental improvements sits well with me. I look forward to seeing how things improve.
future harms?
Berkun’s fourth question is concerned with ethical forecasting - and is probably quite annoying to the casual reader. What are the consequences of placing this design in the public arena? Will it introduce damaging patterns of thought or action? Will it cause cultural confusion - and if so, how might this be mitigated in advance? Yes, this is probably overthinking things, but these are issues that deserve consideration - a map isn’t just a pretty picture - as per Carr’s writing above, it is a ‘mode’ of seeing which will frame how people relate to a physical space. Maps maketh culture.
If I was going to respond to this baffling question, I might point to the self-conscious limits of the design brief. While it doesn’t aim to teach people how to get to some of the tucked-away rooms, it bears some responsibility for the inevitable frustration a Year 7 might feel on September 5th as they try to find one of those obscure Attic rooms in the Cashman building. Realising this from the start means that other good combined solutions might be implemented - such as the existing mentoring relationships that are encouraged between older and younger students. To me this is a significant strength found within any healthy school community - when students take active responsibility for each other.
Thankyou to Principal Claire Jarman (for warmly inviting me to make something for CNCS) and Jo Henderson for being so flexible and kind as we worked through the different stages.
