I picked up this map of Seattle neighborhoods in my local airport coming back from a trip. It layers various graphical elements like surface streets, and neighborhood borders, with textual elements like neighborhood names and numbers that refer to a key. Color is a central organizing principle
One of the frustrations I find with this map is its poor use of proximity: the map overlays almost all of its information about neighborhoods directly on the geography of the map but isolates the general neighborhood areas in a key off to the side.
Choosing to place the “general neighborhood areas” (e.g. Downtown, Capitol Hill, University District) disrupts hierarchy. These areas are at the highest level of organization on the map, but the small, out-of-the-way key does not communicate their importance.
Overall, I still enjoy viewing this map as it sparks my curiosity to learn more about the history behind the names of these neighborhoods in my city.