Locator Map - Purpose

Purpose

Arthur Robinson, an American cartographer influential in thematic cartography, stated that a map not properly designed "will be a cartographic failure." Any map that does not take its audience into account by assuming too much reader knowledge about the map area's context will not fulfill its purpose. Location maps help achieve this purpose by familiarizing the reader with the location of an area they may not have read about previously. A good understanding of the audience's mental map for a particular area is critical for a proper application of location maps.

Used on their own, location maps do not differ significantly from traditional maps, differing primarily in the fact that solitary locator maps focus the attention on a single location within the map frame, where traditional maps generally seek to portray a multitude of features across the entire frame.

More commonly, location maps appear as insebts or ancillary maps (maps adjacent to or near the primary map) in order to help the audience place the geographic area being mapped properly inside their internal frame of reference.