I wrote earlier about how maps on a page (or electronic maps) have taken the place of the narrative maps of old, but my recent trip to Disney World and Orlando Florida brought home how narrative maps are still an integral part of our lives.

So what’s a narrative map? It’s the ‘written out in long hand’ directions of how to get to where you are going. It’s the old man at the side of the road who tells you to drive until you see a red barn and take the right fork at the next crossroads, or the young woman at Disney’s Magical Kingdom who tells you to go up past the camel and turn right to get to Fantasyland, or Frontierland. Narrative mapping is what we do naturally when someone asks for directions—we try to guide them, through language, via visual cues to wherever it is they are trying to get to.

Upon reflection, even though I love line maps, I seem to have a preference for narrative maps whether spoken or written down. Case in point was finding my way around Orlando. My sister played driver and I was the navigator with the maps. Often we had multiple maps, some solely focused on presenting a flat earth representation of the highways, streets and avenues we needed to navigate through. Others though, like the one from our hotel, and the one from our swamp guide, came with narrative directions of how to find our way. Some had distances involved (travel 5.5 miles to X street), others referenced signage (track left at the X sign). Invariably, I’d have the line map spread on my lap, but it was the narrative map that I followed in order to navigate our travel.

This got me thinking that, just like the medieval pilgrims to the Holy Land who depended upon written guidebooks for their journey, I seemed to have a preference for the narrative form rather than for detailed line map. I suppose part of it is the ability for a narrative map to cut through all the details of other potential routes to the ONE route that is going to get me where I want to go. The problem is that narrative maps are dependent upon the accuracy of the person/vehicle conveying the information, while with a line map you can find your own way if the narration proves faulty.

Afterall, we’ve all heard the horror stories about the man told to turn right at the big red barn when the owner of the barn had either painted the barn while, or torn the whole thing down.

So what are your preferences? Do you prefer line maps or narrative maps?