ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some historical developments in information design for the traveller. 'Information design' is a term sometimes used to describe the activity of developing interfaces, whether static or interactive, which are intended to be user-friendly. Providing routing information in a manner convenient to the reader is a complex information design matter, particularly in the case where it is in some form of map. The Beck design has been emulated by designers throughout the world to provide information for passengers on numerous metro systems, with varying degrees of success, and many of these maps have been collected by Mark Ovenden in his Metro Maps of the World. Beck's radical proposal was to abandon geographical correctness in favour of a more diagrammatic presentation. The Beck approach has also inspired diagrams for mainline railways as well as passenger routes for ferries and air travel.
