Comments on: Using Maps in Presentations

By: Sameer

Sameer — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:06:15 +0000

@Jan:

A tool which will provide you with maps of all the countries is FusionMaps (http://www.fusioncharts.com/maps)…don‘t know if it will satisfy the other features you are looking for but yeah they do have a lot of maps there…and pretty good-looking ones too…

By: amenity

amenity — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:25:40 +0000

I agree with Andrew. As Tufte showed how to contort a text with auto-content wizard, Monmonier showed how to lie with maps. Where bulleted lists often over-simplify, maps may over-generalize - and misemphasis is easily achieved with both. This may or may not prove my point (ah, the gems of Google Image Search). Yet if they're accurate, legible, and not, as you point out, ugly filler, maps can be quite effective. & Thanks for introducing Kevin Van Aelst's clever work! Though his site is actually here.

By: Dr. Jim Anderson

Dr. Jim Anderson — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:33:09 +0000

Cathy: one of the most effective maps that I’ve ever used in a presentation was a simple “you are here” map as seen on mall maps the world over.

No, not terribly informative, but sure got a chuckle and then we moved on to the real information…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental Communicator Blog
“Learn How To Calm Your Fears, Wow Your Audience, And Get Your Point Across”

By: Jan Schultink

Jan Schultink — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:02:42 +0000

Thank you Art. This application looks good. Unfortunately, it does not cover the entire globe.

I do not need all the rich features for the small country in which I live (or any country actually), but I would like a simple tool that covers all countries in the world.

By: Art Johnson

Art Johnson — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:14:36 +0000

I use MapPoint. It has some statistical capabilities and you can even drill down to zip codes, and fill areas by color. Not all the design flexibility you are looking for, but works for my purposes. Of course, my version is U.S. Don’t know if there is an international edition.

By: Jan Schultink

Jan Schultink — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:34:04 +0000

100% agreed with the post.

The biggest potential for maps is that of displaying very complex data (going beyond the location map).

What’s holding me back in using them more is good raw maps that I can edit in PowerPoint. Accurate countries, regions, cities of which I can change colors granularly.

At the moment I purchase a (poor) Vector map in iStockPhoto, manipulate it a bit in Illustrator and copy back into PPT.

Is there a good “map bank” for PPT? I have seen some sites but their design are either not accurate, or not very “Zen”.

Help appreciated.

By: Hiroaki Yamane

Hiroaki Yamane — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:50:59 +0000

Great and useful post. Thanks I’ll definitely use this post in my presentations.

By: Andrew Turner

Andrew Turner — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:32:50 +0000

Very good points. It’s also too easy now to put up a screenshot of a GoogleMap with pins or other simplistic markers in it.

However, it’s also important to be careful to accurately convey the meaning of the map data. Tufte’s “Cognitive Style of Powerpoint” makes it clear the effect of being overly creative with data that is being used to inform a decision. Using cute graphics can be misleading.

In general, people using maps in slides should become aware of simple cartographic principles in order to effectively and accurately portray geographic information.