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Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

berlintransitmap.de

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Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#21

Post by frosted-flakes »

supernova87a wrote: post #13

UI designers (or especially the ones that have blogs) seem highly susceptible to 2 common afflictions, which affect many people when they live for too long in their art: -- Believing that fonts and lines can solve major world problems -- Believing that anything they touch must've needed solving I find it rare that a UI designer will say "that version of it is fine, and better than the additional complications I would…

Do you think he hacked the video monitors to display his map too? The picture is clearly Photoshopped.

[Edit: on closer inspection, it looks like the video monitor is photoshopped in, but the paper map is real. I like the idea of seeing how well a product works in an actual environment and getting real feedback.]

I find your comment to be overly cynical. The map designer never said his map can "solve world problems", and it is clear to me that Berlin's map is far from ideal. He had an idea and wanted to try it out, and now he wants to know what people think. Is there something wrong with that? Drawing unoffical transit maps is a common practice, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#23

Post by [deleted] »

supernova87a wrote: post #13

UI designers (or especially the ones that have blogs) seem highly susceptible to 2 common afflictions, which affect many people when they live for too long in their art: -- Believing that fonts and lines can solve major world problems -- Believing that anything they touch must've needed solving I find it rare that a UI designer will say "that version of it is fine, and better than the additional complications I would…

[deleted]

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#25

Post by NelsonMinar »

supernova87a wrote: post #13

UI designers (or especially the ones that have blogs) seem highly susceptible to 2 common afflictions, which affect many people when they live for too long in their art: -- Believing that fonts and lines can solve major world problems -- Believing that anything they touch must've needed solving I find it rare that a UI designer will say "that version of it is fine, and better than the additional complications I would…

I'm a little confused; who do you think is supposed to solve the problem of a clear readable transit map other than a designer?

Also what is this "old map that many people were just fine with for decades"? The BVG revises their map, what, yearly? They had to cope with a rather radical set of revisions a couple of decades ago. And more recently with the opening of the new Hauptbahnhof the entire transit system of Berlin has rotated around a new axis.

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#26

Post by asar »

I get the general idea that the S-Bahn ring is not actually a ring and the map should also reflect that. But the transit map is not intended to do this. It's not about highly accurate distances between stations (these are off in the official and this unofficial map), the curves of the rails and rivers of the city. It's about the train I need to take, where it intersects with other train routes, what is my next stop and what city zone is this station in. All of which I think are worse to read in this proposed map.

- Zone A is massively cluttered with station names, try reading the stations on the U1, it's not clear at all

- The ring itself is also quite hard to read compared to the old map, because I need to jump left and right to follow the path of the tracks

- Why add rivers to this map?

There is a beauty to the symmetry of the current map which makes it easy to read and most importantly it doesn't overwhelm the user with odd shapes and flashy colors. The article itself is quite nice though, especially the old maps, overall the presentation was great too. I just don't think this needed fixing.

For anyone interested here is a link to the official BVG Map (correct distances) and the official route map: https://fahrinfo.bvg.de/Fahrinfo/bin/query.bin/en?ujm=1

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#27

Post by LeanderK »

ahane wrote: post #17

Really sad how almost all the comments in this thread are negative. As somebody who has lived in Berlin since 11 years, whilst having studied the official transit map and the big BVG physical map of berlin for hours: This is a really great improvement over the official one it gives me a relieved kind of pleasure to look at. I can really feel how all those expectations from the physical map finally find a home in the…

I live in karlsruhe and the KVV there did a similiar change and after living with it for a few months I can say that it's a real improvement!

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#28

Post by tsp »

Berliner here. The ring (called like that by most citizens, here drives the “ringbahn” – circular train) serves most as orientation. People say “I live inside the ring”, or “that party is far outside, outside the ring”.

Removing this element alone is a really bad decision. By looking at the original map a couple of times it is very easy to use the ring as visual aid and go from there. It is essential for navigation.

In general I think adding more curves does not do any good here. I appreciate people trying to improve the map, and certainly there is much to be improved, but the approach of berlintransitmaps goes in the wrong direction. It is much harder to read than the original map imo.

The biggest problem is contrast.

Re: Unofficial new Berlin rapid transit route map

#29

Post by gmueckl »

LeanderK wrote: post #27
ahane wrote: post #17

Really sad how almost all the comments in this thread are negative. As somebody who has lived in Berlin since 11 years, whilst having studied the official transit map and the big BVG physical map of berlin for hours: This is a really great improvement over the official one it gives me a relieved kind of pleasure to look at. I can really feel how all those expectations from the physical map finally find a home in the…

I live in karlsruhe and the KVV there did a similiar change and after living with it for a few months I can say that it's a real improvement!

The KVV map did not change its layout very much. It was mostly a pretty tame transition from sharp angles and straight lines to curves. Most stations didn't change their relative position much. I don't know if the new one is better. I only remember having to unlearn the layout of the old one for a while. Also, this map change was after a time when the routes were changed around several times to accommodate the new tunnels then under construction. So the old maps also had a lot of churn.
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