There Should Be a Checklist for Maps by Betsy Mason.
From the post:
Earlier this week, Stephanie Evergreen posted this great checklist for data visualizations. She and Ann Emery designed it to help social scientists understand the elements of a successful graph and offer guidance on how to make a graph better.
I’ve seen the list tweeted by data viz experts like Alberto Cairo and had it forwarded it to me by a designer I used to work with. It got me thinking that a list like this for maps would be really useful. We’re beginners at mapmaking here at Map Lab, and we’d love a list like this to check our own maps against, and to help us evaluate maps we come across.
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Betsy has located one such guide but is seeking your advice on what should be on the checklist for map?
A checklist for maps, no disrespect intended towards data visualizations, is a very deep question. Maps, useful ones at any rate, reflect their author, purpose, intended audience, social context, technology for making the map, etc.
Suggestions? Comments?