ABSTRACT
Michael article entitled 'Visual Perception and Map Design' aimed to develop a flexible grammar of map symbols that cartographers could use to guide their design of maps and that was based on the limits and capabilities of visual perception. He drew upon psychological literature to review aspects of the visual perception of colour and form. The title of the article notwithstanding, J. Wood also ventures briefly into the realm of the cognitive and explores the making of meaning from symbols for map readers. The group of cartographers whose practice has been most directly influenced by Wood's idea of promoting depth cues has been those designing visual displays in operational environments such as air traffic control towers and power plant control rooms. Another way in which Wood's 1968 article had impacts upon cartography can be seen when researchers took up his call for flexible grammars that could provide guidance to less experienced cartographers to help them to make design decisions.
