Why I Draw Mazes

I love mazes because they are both simple and complex at the same time. While finding the solution of a maze can involve navigating a complex, daunting network of passage ways, the rules for participating are easy understand: avoid dead ends until you find the end. While individuals often shy away from complexity, engaging with a very complex maze is simple. You start at the beginning and face one decision at a time. If you avoid making previous wrong turns you’ll inevitably make it to the end, with enough patience.

I appreciate how mazes have a clear separation between information architecture and visual design. The IA of a maze can be formalized as a series of discrete decisions. It is possible for many different mazes to share the same information architecture, but have completely different visual designs. The designer of a maze plays a similar role to a web interface designer. They must think through the logical framework of their design along with the aesthetics of how the maze walls are rendered.

Leave a Reply