Tilemaps represent geographic regions by means of geometrical enumeration units identical in shape and area. Hence, they eliminate those interpretation errors that are introduced by small geographical regions overlooked by the map user. Usually, tilemaps are generated in an automatic manner applying computer algorithms on the so-called assignment problem. However, these rules of assignment between geographic regions and tiles often remain incomprehensible to users, thus complicating effective interpretation. Against this background, in this paper we present an alternative process of designing tilemaps based on user rather than computer input. Two user studies on both shape and internal structure of tilemaps will be discussed for this purpose. The results obtained provide a scalable method, which can be applied to a variety of geographic scenarios but also indicates those weak spots of a tilemap, where standard 1:1 assignment fails.