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Ads aside, the UI of Youtube and Maps is atrocious. There is so much room for improvement here, but it will never happen from Google. It's just not in their DNA

Ads aside, the UI of Youtube and Maps is atrocious. There is so much room for improvement here, but it will never happen from Google. It's just not in their DNA. Unfortunately, they have such a huge moat here I doubt we'll see anything better for a long time.

bitL 4y ago
They used to have pretty good UI for maps until some PM needed to make their mark... Given they count individual pixels and +/-1 deltas in colors I don't think they are ever going to get any UI correctly. The initial simple UI with just a single search input box that was highly praised by minimalists was just an accident.
Ingaz 4y ago
Actually Youtube is not so bad. Youtube Music is really .. strange. It looks wrong/outdated everywhere. Generated playlists (recomendations) are always (for days/weeks) the same. Not a bit randomization. It feels like they were approved by party commitete for years. I don't understand why they decided social network in music service. Ah hell. CUE-lists are still too novice technology for them. I still think that last.fm 15 years ago was the best music service.
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  Youtube Music lost me the moment they shut down my Google Play Music and told me to kick rocks.
uxcolumbo 4y ago
What things about maps and YouTube’s UI annoy you? I find YouTube quite easy to use, esp the shortcut keys. Recommendation system is another story.
- lmm 4y ago
  The most infuriating thing with Maps is that if you're looking at directions and have got the viewport where you want it and want to do something there (e.g. look at the description of a restaurant that's near the station you're changing at, or get directions to somewhere along your route), you can't. There's no way to escape from "directions mode" except hitting the back button, which resets your viewport. So you have to memorize the name of the place you're interested in, exit directions, and then hope that searching finds the place you were looking at a second ago (which, maybe in English it does, but searching for a Japanese place by name works maybe 1/3 of the time).
  - acjacobson 4y ago
    This is weird because the behavior you describe is available on the desktop version of Maps, but not in the mobile app. I can't imagine why...

bitL 4y ago

They used to have pretty good UI for maps until some PM needed to make their mark... Given they count individual pixels and +/-1 deltas in colors I don't think they are ever going to get any UI correctly. The initial simple UI with just a single search input box that was highly praised by minimalists was just an accident.

Ingaz 4y ago

Actually Youtube is not so bad. Youtube Music is really .. strange. It looks wrong/outdated everywhere. Generated playlists (recomendations) are always (for days/weeks) the same. Not a bit randomization. It feels like they were approved by party commitete for years. I don't understand why they decided social network in music service. Ah hell. CUE-lists are still too novice technology for them. I still think that last.fm 15 years ago was the best music service.

bobthepanda 4y ago
Youtube Music lost me the moment they shut down my Google Play Music and told me to kick rocks.

uxcolumbo 4y ago

What things about maps and YouTube’s UI annoy you? I find YouTube quite easy to use, esp the shortcut keys. Recommendation system is another story.

lmm 4y ago
The most infuriating thing with Maps is that if you're looking at directions and have got the viewport where you want it and want to do something there (e.g. look at the description of a restaurant that's near the station you're changing at, or get directions to somewhere along your route), you can't. There's no way to escape from "directions mode" except hitting the back button, which resets your viewport. So you have to memorize the name of the place you're interested in, exit directions, and then hope that searching finds the place you were looking at a second ago (which, maybe in English it does, but searching for a Japanese place by name works maybe 1/3 of the time).
- acjacobson 4y ago
  This is weird because the behavior you describe is available on the desktop version of Maps, but not in the mobile app. I can't imagine why...