4 ms·
Kind of cool, but I think it's actually a mistake to customize an important map much - showing a person a google map lets them know exactly what it is immediate
by ericd 16y ago
Kind of cool, but I think it's actually a mistake to customize an important map much - showing a person a google map lets them know exactly what it is immediately, and they can jump right in. Showing them a Google map that doesn't look like a Google map seems like you could make minor gains in usability in one way, but you're paying a large learnability penalty in the other. Overall, if it's a business project, you'd better have a damn good reason for it.
- showerst 16y agoOn the flip side to that, many people nowadays use google maps to show things unrelated to navigation. When you're trying to pinpoint locations that aren't street addresses, or show large area overlays, all that extraneous information is distracting, and works against usability. It'll also be great to finally be able to show a map that's not jarringly obviously from a third party provider. (I'm totally cool with the small google logo/copyrights, but the color scheme just screams 'outside embed').
- ericd 16y agoYeah, there are definitely cases when it makes sense, but I think that the majority of times when people think it's a good idea to make something look custom, it's actually not when looked at from a usability perspective. I realize that I'm in the minority about this when I look around and see most of my competitors customizing the look of their markers, etc, but I think they just make it worse most of the time. This is granting much more power in that department. I'm happy for the power, I just vehemently disagree that this is going to make map mashups much better overall. I don't think "outside embed" is a bad thing when viewed from the eyes of the user - it's comforting familiarity for many. Making it seem custom is just an ego trip.