Map Design Gone Wrong Do People Even Care Anymore?

Cartographers take pride in their work, typically applying all the rules and principles of good cartographic design to their work, all in an effort to make people want to look at and appreciate their work (See Esri, Make Maps People Want to Look at).  However, in this new era of social sharing it seems that the map has been replaced by the Infographic and the data visualization, a mashup of data, graphics, and maps presented in an effort to tell a story.  Now us geographers are well aware of story telling via map, however, to this new breed of data visualists the focus has sadly been on quantity rather than quality. Bloggers, publishers, newspapers, etc… run to the web, download data and mashup the results in creative and not so creative ways, the end result is often a map but sadly, the product is also something your GEOG 101 Prof would likely slap you if you called it a map!

Yep, gone are the days of cartographic principles, map design standards, scale, composition, and elements of good map design.