tried it both ways. trouble with white background was that, given the diversity of colors and how thin some of the lines on the chord diagram are, it was hard to distinguish them well.
Blue water is a heavily-established pattern in mapmaking; do you gain anything by not just making the water blue? I understand you're going for a black / white aesthetic but to be honest, it's a well-worn one.
Re:Interactive map of BART ridership
by jessaustin on Friday October 11, 2013 @05:21PM
(#6535999)
Maybe a light or dark gray would contrast well and still fit the aesthetic?
It actually took me about five to ten seconds to see the outline of SF and recognize it because at first I was looking at the water area and thinking "this doesn't look like the bay area".
Overall I think you should use a white or beigish background with black text, and for the map colors use black landmass and water the color of the page background. It will make the page so much easier to read.