Halloween Horror Nights is a spooktacular annual event hosted at Universal Studios, and this map comes from the Hollywood location. Once I arrived, I was handed this static paper map in order to locate and navigate through different rides, mazes, scare zones, restaurants, etc.
One notices right away how color is used here to distinguish between the different attractions and highlight the locations. Rides are depicted in green, mazes in blue, scare zones in orange, live shows in violet, terror tram in light purple, and closed attractions in grey. Breaking it up by category makes specific types of attraction much more discoverable. Another use of color is through the color choice of text on the map itself. Notice how all the attractions are in yellow whereas other points of interest (entrance, exit, escalator, lot level) are in orange. One interesting thing to note is that these colors were not difficult to distinguish by my color blind friend.
Another design principle that is used in this map is layering. One thing to note is that there are two lots in this map; an upper lot and lower lot. The first example of layering that came to mind is the way those two lots were depicted in the map. There is an escalator depicted that leads to the lower lot and one way to notice which parts belonged to the lower lot versus the upper lot is how the trees were drawn on the map. The tree images surrounding the ledge looking over the lower lot only displayed their top halves, meaning everything that is past that point is considered in the lower lot. Another example of layering is all the different labels on the map, from attraction names, ride images, arrows to entrances, and various labels explained further on the legend depicted at the bottom of the map.
Consistency is another key design principle depicted on this map. The font chosen for major attractions and points of interest are the same, bolded, and capitalized, whether it is actual words or abbreviations (“UNIVERSAL MONSTERS” or “M3”). When it comes to labels on the map, legend descriptions use a different font, unbolded, and uncapitalized. All similar labels on the map are the same size. “M#” and “S#” have the same circle size. All the dining and shopping circles are the same size. Every other label with the exception of “Phones, Restrooms, and Water Fountains” are consistent in size. I believe the reason for grouping the “Phones, Restrooms, and Water Fountains” are because they are always in the same location and breaking them out might cause more clutter. Also notice the consistent use of borders on the labels and attractions and points of interest names. Labels have a white border whereas the words have a black label. Around the map are different legends and they are all consistent in detailing the “ripped paper” aesthetic.
Dear Sofanah: thanks for sharing the Hollywood map. I too noticed the layering and consistency of icon/logo design, and it’s interesting to note that these colors are designed with accessibility in mind (for your color blind friend). Another observation is this seems to be a horror night theme, so the menu bars and background overlay in dark black as well as some typography also revealed some spooky feeling. I recall the utility of light fonts against the black background is also very popular among user with vision issues.