Elements of Vivid Cartography

ABSTRACT As maps become more common and popular in the media to illustrate large social and environmental problems such as climate change, cartographers who are given this task are searching for ways to present information to persuade readers to care and take action. Research has shown that simply presenting facts is often not enough for someone to take action to solve these types of socio-environmental problems; information must not only be presented accurately but also must connect with readers’ emotions. Indeed, cartographers have increasingly been interested in understanding not just the cognitive implications of map design but also both the persuasive nature of and affective responses to map design. Here I present the term vividness, a term used in other communication domains to describe content which attracts attention, evokes emotion, and makes distant topics proximate to readers. While this term is new to the cartographic realm it provides a framework by which to evaluate maps for their persuasiveness based in both cognitive map design research conducted since the middle of the last century and newer research in cartography on maps and emotion. Through semi-structured interviews with experts I illustrate how cartographers create persuasive maps that align with the definition of vividness and I argue that vividness is composed of the following elements in maps: (1) visual salience, (2) visible change over time, (3) congruent colour use, (4) projection choice, (5) symbolization, (6) legend design, (7) layout, and (8) novel designs.