From reasoning and intelligence research to information design: understanding and optimising the usability and acceptability of schematic transit maps

Any travel by public transport, anywhere in the world, will almost certainly result in an encounter with some sort of schematic map for planning a journey, assisting in locating the correct departure point, or confirming the status of a journey en route. This method of information presentation can be amongst the most complex that members of the public are likely to use in everyday life. Indeed, with everincreasing network complexity worldwide, a recent mathematical analysis (Gallotti, Porter, & Barthelemy, 2016) suggests that there is a cognitive limit to the understandability of complex transport networks, and a number of these worldwide have already exceeded this.