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June 05, 2005
Google Maps Slightly Miss the Point
Update: Google Maps does draw a single pushpin if a user specifies the exact address, such as '123 Sesame St., Philadelphia, PA'. (This is what i'm asking for, but in more general single searches.)
First, before my UX (user experience) critique, three cheers to the magical coders of Google Maps. Despite being a 'beta' version (in classical Google form), Google Maps achieves what no other known web map program does, and with wonderfully simple finesse -- it allows continuous scrolling without full page reloading. I cannot say how fantastic this is. (And if you haven't yet, check out the Satellite option, using the recently acquired Keyhole software).
But anyway, back to the critique. Like all good map programs, Google Maps offers direction mapping, where the user may type starting and ending addresses, and Google marks out a suggested route between them. The start and ending points are marked with obvious red and green 'pushpins'. This i have no gripe about, and in fact I applaud a very good first effort. However, these useful pushpins are nowhere to be seen if a user simply types in a single location (say, Ann Arbor, MI).
In the single location situation, Google Maps draws the area, at appropriate viewing distance, and centers the screen on the desired location. However, if the user zooms out, the specific location can be easily lost amid larger scale items such as highways and major city locations. At even 1/4 zoom, any reference points to Ann Arbor completely disappear from the map, showing only highways and nearby Detroit. A user unfamiliar with the area then has no idea where Ann Arbor is: is it below US-94, east or west of US-23? Moving one's eyes around on the map while scrolling just increases the chances of losing where the specific location is.
Why, oh why, Google, do you not use your little pushpin to highlight where a [general] single location is? This way, a user could zoom in or out, without losing the exact point of their desired location. I don't want to have to memorize the areas in all four cardinal directions so i can successfully locate my city when i zoom out. The program excels in every way except this -- please Google, add a pushpin to your single location map search!
Posted by MaTT at June 5, 2005 01:25 AM