I don’t know why I’ve recently had such fascinations with subway maps. It’d be cool to be known for illustrating one…
information Architects has released their fourth Web Trend map, modeled after the Tokyo Metro Subway System
The Web Trend Map is a yearly publication by iA Inc. It maps the 333 most influential Web domains and the 111 most influential Internet people onto the Tokyo Metro map.
Domains are carefully selected by the iA research team through dialogue with map enthusiasts. Each domain is evaluated based on traffic, revenue, age and the company that owns it. The iA design team assigns these selected domains to individual stations on the Tokyo Metro map in ways that complement the characters of each. For example, Twitter is located in Shibuya this year, as Shibuya is the spot with the biggest buzz.
Why Tokyo Metro? Because the complex metro lines are the best analogy to the Internet we have found for a trend map. To serve our purposes, however, the Tokyo Metro map has been modified slightly from its original version.
iA is soliciting final feedback on this Final Beta version before sending it to the printer.
I’ve referenced their last two maps extensively in new media/digital strategy maps. Here are links to those:
