A Shitty Map is a quick, imperfect visual expression of an idea that invites discussion, play, and improvement.
It sheds the pretense of polish because there’s nothing to hide; it’s an honest, earnest communication, created to build alignment and move ideas forward.
Make Your Maps Shitty
S – Starts
A Shitty Map is a map that begins to be made before things are figured out. It shows thinking in motion.
H – Humble
A Shitty Map doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. It does what it needs to and leaves space for other and better ideas.
I – Inviting
A Shitty Map welcomes marks from others. The best maps are drawn together.
T – Transparent
A Shitty Map shows the raw work. It lets people see the thinking, the gaps, and the possibilities.
T – Testing
A Shitty Map forces ideas to be held loosely. Nothing is locked in. Everything is up for discussion.
Y – Yielding
A Shitty Map bends, shifts, and grows as needed. It is accommodating to new developments.
Fancy Maps Don’t Work
They take too long to make.
All that time, and in the end, do you know if it’ll even be useful? or right?
They’re made to tell, not to think.
They present answers when what we really need is a way to figure things out together.
They hijack your attention.
The design draws your eye to what’s shiny — not necessarily to what matters.
They feel too polished to touch.
When something looks final, no one wants to question it — even when they should.
They look smarter than they are.
The design says “trust me,” even when the thinking hasn’t been tested.
They create false certainty.
The things looks solid, even if the ideas inside aren’t.
About Shitty Maps
I was making shitty maps before they were cool. Mostly because I am both a mediocre designer and someone who relies on visualizations to communicate my thoughts.
Recently I found myself frustrated that the majority of the stuff I’ve made as a consultant—helping others make sense of their products and visions—looks kinda shitty. It doesn’t look like someone valuable, despite being extremely valuable when used to help someone see something they couldn’t see before. Not only that, I have found that really good-looking visuals are often worse at helping people get work done than really shitty-looking ones.
Shitty Maps is about coming together as practitioners who aren’t afraid to be vulnerable with our thoughts, invite collaboration, expose the work of the messy middle, and get meaningful work done. Let’s be proud of our Shitty Maps and their ability to be a means to an end. Let’s give each other the permission we didn’t ask for, but desperately need to make things be good, not just look good.
If you need someone to talk to your team about Shitty Maps or want help building a Shitty Mapping capability within your organization, please reach out.
Shitty Maps is a campaign from Maps and Mirror by Joe Elmendorf