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Previous: Taco Bell sign | Main | Next: Wilmington, NC airport monitors
July 6, 2005 12:02 AM
Broken: Map to conference center
Karen Landis points us to this map to a conference center and writes:
I thought about attending an event in September. I'm new to Chicago and have no idea where Northlake, IL or the Midwest Conference Center is. Happily, the event site provides a map. After pursuing this particular map, I still have no idea where Northlake or the conference center might be.In fact, I'm more confused. The arrows from the gray boxes look just like the directional arrows. The green hurt my eyes. I think the target destination is the squiggly "M" next to the words "Midwest Conference Center" spelled out in a red, green, blue combo but I'm not sure.
I do appreciate that they offered a larger version of it in a PDF. Hard to figure out? Make it bigger!
I live in Chicago and I can barely read that map! It was nice of them to try to provide directions from the major expressways, but this is clearly a situation that demands different maps... and some better directions if you are coming down 294!
Here are some much better maps:
http://membership.acs.org/c/chicago/maps/midwestconf.html
Of course, how is this for broken:
It's the conference center's home page and right now, I can't get to it! :)
First of all, directions to a particular place in a large city don't need to tell you how to get to that city. It's reasonable to assume that you can find your way to Northlake on your own. (Otherwise, the directions would have to give you information about how to get there from EVERY concievable location!)
Second, the map is actually fairly clear and accurate. It even includes a scale and highway markers. The directions correspond to the map precisely.
Unfortunately, the roads don't make it easy to get to this conference center. If you're coming from the North, for example, you're best off if you actually exit west and then double-back on some side streets.
Finally, I do agree that the map "target" is not as clear as possible. The multicolored "MIDWEST CONFERENCE CENTER" is difficult to read and the cursive M looks like a mistake, not a design element.
Yes, it could be better, but not nearly as bad as the last map on here.(http://www.thisisbroken.com/2004/11/rockefeller_cen.html)
It certainly took me a while to read the map and some familiarity with the area helped. And it dosn't help that this place is hard to get to. But this map has some features which most maps don't bother with. They've reproduced the exit signs you need to look for. They've shown the exact series of steps to get there from I-294 which is complicated. Plus, they've reproduced the directions in words below the map and color coded those directions to the map above. What more do you want? Other than a place which is easier to get to?
Given that the location of the conference centre isn't directly accessible via the offramps, the directions are as good as can be expected. The major improvement would be separate maps for each approach direction so that there would not be the need to colour the arrows to distinguish them. Note that two of the three colours used are red, and green which would likely cause a problem for those who are colour-blind.
The handwritten "M" and the multicolored "MIDWEST CONFERENCE CENTER" are broken, The green and red arrows aren't really broken because each route has a large, distinct letter and you can follow the arrows down from those. The arrows connecting the highway signs to their exits should probably have been in a distinct color altogether. Besides these things, this is a great map.
If you are coming off of I-294, why do you have to get on I-290 nd then on to some side streets? MS Streets & Trips says tht you can get off of an interchange that takes you to US-20.
If you are coming off of I-294, why do you have to get on I-290 nd then on to some side streets? MS Streets & Trips says tht you can get off of an interchange that takes you to US-20. This is also broken.
If you are coming off of I-294, why do you have to get on I-290 nd then on to some side streets? MS Streets & Trips says tht you can get off of an interchange that takes you to US-20. This is also broken.
If you are coming off of I-294, why do you have to get on I-290 nd then on to some side streets? MS Streets & Trips says tht you can get off of an interchange that takes you to US-20. Someone must of had fun with the maps.
This maop doesn't seem all the bad, yes the multiple colors are annoying and effecitvly usless if this is printed on a black and white printer, but they do show you how to get there from many directions and I think its reasonable to assume that you could find your way to a expressway from your hotel. You don't even need to know where northlake is to find it.
This maop doesn't seem all the bad, yes the multiple colors are annoying and effecitvly usless if this is printed on a black and white printer, but they do show you how to get there from many directions and I think its reasonable to assume that you could find your way to a expressway from your hotel. You don't even need to know where northlake is to find it.
I could read that map far more easily if *each* approach were indicated on a separate map, rather than having them all overlap each other with arrows going every which way. (I have a hard time dealing with visual clutter in general-- not just on maps...)
I think the colors used for that map just burned my retinas. Once you get past that it's not too hard to read but I agree they should have used three separate maps for the three different directions instead of making the one map look like a pre-school project.
"First of all, directions to a particular place in a large city don't need to tell you how to get to that city."
Large city??? How large in Northlake IL? I've never heard of it.
" It's reasonable to assume that you can find your way to Northlake on your own.
No, it's not. Of ALL places where the majority of attendees are out-of-staters, a CONFERENCE is going to be at the top!
"(Otherwise, the directions would have to give you information about how to get there from EVERY concievable location!)"
Yes, it's called a regional map. ("Oh, OK, according to this regional map, NorthLake is about 10 miles due West of downtown Chicago. Ah, and there's highway 294!)
It makes perfectly sense to me. I never went to Chicago but I would find this place. The map has a lot of information, but it tells me where to drive from any direction.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Taco Bell sign | Main | Next: Wilmington, NC airport monitors
_@_v__/ - looks like a map of how to get there (since the off-ramps don't necessarily get you where you want) once you got there - since this is likely a regional event they figure you'd know how to get to northlake.
_@_v - oh what the hell... first!
Posted by: she-snailie_@_v at July 6, 2005 12:40 AM