Abstract: In recent years, electronic maps have played an increasingly important role in people's daily life and tourism. As a new type of electronic map, the city characteristic electronic map is an important medium for the public to obtain urban geospatial information, understand and recognize the city, and is also an effective tool for publicizing and promoting the city. It can effectively highlight the urban structure and urban culture. However, the current research on city electronic maps is mainly focused on technology development and function realization, and there are few explorations on its visual design and artistic performance, and it is difficult to highlight the characteristics of the city. Based on theories of urban space cognition, map visual perception, color geography, etc., this research explores the design method of urban characteristic electronic map from the perspective of visual expression, and on this basis, combines the practical case of Nanjing city characteristic electronic map design. The specific methods and processes of grading content selection, symbol design and color design are explained, aiming to provide a reference for the design of city characteristic electronic maps.

Key words: city characteristics, urban space cognition, electronic map, visual expression