In a previous post, Visualizing Maps: Google Analytics maps, we saw how Google Analytics maps render when extruded from their context and/or seen as a black & white image.

USA states?

Looking at the USA map where users origin is highlighted darkening the relevant state, the first thing that stands out is you have to know the state name just looking at the map. If this is, or should be, a quite easy task for an American reader, things are not so obvious for someone from Europe or somewhere else. If is it true that you have the detailed list of the states, together with their relevant figures, in a table just under the map image, is it also true that if you just look at the map (as it would be in the case you take the map alone to insert it in a custom layout for printing/slide show) it's not so immediate to find out the state name.

Visualizing maps is a key factor when dealing with statistics and complex data, online maps as the ones used by Google Analytics, the Google service for web statistics, could take advantage of the internet medium to enhance the user interaction but what happens when you have to read those same maps on a different medium (say you what to print them) or with a different format size?