Open your phone, type a destination, and a blue line draws itself across the screen. Turn left in two hundred meters. You follow without thinking. The map has become so seamless, s

Most people open a map when they are lost. Yet the most useful maps are often consulted before the journey begins—when someone is choosing a neighborhood, planning a delivery route

Most of us open a map app several times a day without giving it a second thought. We check traffic before leaving the house, find a coffee shop in an unfamiliar neighborhood, or fo