Signposting

Listening to the radio as I drove into our Keele University base yesterday, I heard about something that I immediately wanted to see.

This,

which, in case you're uncertain, is a reimagined version of this,

which, in turn, started off as this:

The original Tube map (third one above) was designed by Harry Beck in 1933. An electronic draughtsman on the Underground, Beck based his map on the circuit diagrams he was skilled in creating, resulting in the famous crisscrossing of colourful straight lines. The second map above is Transport for London's current pocket version.

The reimagined map (the first one shown) has been created by Dr. Maxwell Roberts, a psychology lecturer at the University of Essex. It's something he first drafted in 2013, calling the official map a "garbage piece of lazy design". No fence to dismount there. The reimagined version uses concentric circles and spokes to represent the various Tube lines.

In the LinkedIn article describing his work, Dr. Roberts opines that the pocket map:

...has poor balance, simplicity, coherence and topographical accuracy. It fails by any criterion of effectiveness...

Dr. Roberts' piece is highly thought provoking.

As someone who has lived and then worked in London, I like the map. It's helpful; it's capable of interpretation; it's instantly clear and comprehensible. It works. It's neither accident nor coincidence that the iconic map has survived with occasional modification for approaching a century and is a template for transport maps the world over.

But I'm thinking and writing about the station poster maps. Dr. Roberts is right that the pocket map is unworthy of Beck's original. It's a completely different file, attempting to cram too much into one space.

As Board advisors, ANHH often talks about the difference - and ascending value - of data, information, intelligence, and insight. Let's break that down for the existing map.

Data are the individual stations.

Information is how those stations link together as lines.

Intelligence is where the lines interconnect and new routes can start.

Insight is... Well, there we have some issues.

As Dr. Roberts describes, the existing map emphasises neither distance nor geographical accuracy. To understand those dimensions - to gain real insight for their journey - passengers have to do a bit of their own research.

It's obvious when you're actually travelling that some stations are a minute apart whilst the journey between others allows time to read a blog or two. But the equidistance of the data on the existing map doesn't provide that insight. This is where Dr. Roberts' update represents a step change advance, giving dimensions that hint at distance, albeit inevitably imperfectly. Bad geography results in the planning of bad journeys.

The Tube map is at heart intended to be a signpost, a guide, an indication of direction of travel. It's not drawn by the Ordance Survey - and nor does it need to be - but it still needs to do a serviceable job to be effective.

As with the signposts that ANHH sees and deploys every day in our work - review reports, risk registers, regulatory guidance, policy changes, our advice - it is for the receiver to act on what's in front of them. It's our responsibility to get as close to insight as we can, but responsibility for making and then taking decisions on the basis of our outputs rests squarely with our clients - just as it does for passengers when they stare at a map.

The data, information and intelligence provided by the existing station maps are, I suggest, more than good enough. It effortlessly achieves the dream of making the complex simple. But the same cannot be said of the pocket map. It confuses by trying to do too much.

I like Dr. Roberts' version. It's clever, informative and, somewhat importantly, accurate. It's also beautiful. Poster-on-the-wall, stare-at-all-day beautiful. He's not proposing his map as a successor, but he hopes TfL might be inspired to look critically at their version. Thumbs up to that.

Finally, and on the theme of signposting, I'd love you to check out our new website. It, too, will have its deficiencies, but I hope it's good enough to guide you in ANHH's direction as you tackle your governance, leadership or programme management challenges.

I hope you know where and how to find us - but please let me know if you need me to map it out.