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Changing the default color to teal was a huge mistake IMHO. I have been using Google Maps since its inception (18 years!) and this was a most unwelcome change.

Changing the default color to teal was a huge mistake IMHO. I have been using Google Maps since its inception (18 years!) and this was a most unwelcome change. They could have at least gave us an option on which color scheme we want. Where’s Steve Jobs when you need him?

gramakri2 3y ago
what we need is skins and themes like... winamp!
- loloquwowndueo 3y ago
  Winamp was the perfect combination of UX and skeuomorphism.
  - goldenkey 3y ago
    It kicks the Llama-7B's ass!
    - Daneel_ 3y ago
      Milkdrop for Google maps: incoming!
      - goldenkey 3y ago
        Taps "Time Walk" and pulls out Jon Finkel's Tinker deck
- Doctor_Fegg 3y ago
  You jest but it's 100% doable. If I had a spare couple of months I'd build a UI for this on openstreetmap.org. (How you'd do it: move osm.org to vector tiles, use Maplibre GL as the rendering library, enable users to upload and select their own JSON stylesheet, build some sort of rudimentary sharing facility so you could use others' stylesheets)
astrange 3y ago
The teal color is a strange choice because it feels early 2000s. Old phone screens just didn't show darker colors as well.
- jamincan 3y ago
  That's what I felt too; the color choices feel very dated to me.
digitalapnea 3y ago
Why does it feel like precious few UXs are meaningfully configurable? I see endless discussions at work on how we should tweak UI details, and every time I mention "why don't we just let the user decide" I get unanimously shouted out of the room. What am I missing? Is it that much more work? Is a consistent theme/brand-feel that much more valuable to the business?
- Centigonal 3y ago
  adding configurability means maintaining lots of different possible states, which may interact with each other and have unexpected emergent effects. This slows down future development and attracts users who lose their minds when you break their pet feature. Some software has succeeded going down the path of high-configurability (mostly FOSS like vim/emacs/sublime/vscode, Calibre, rainmeter), but the prevailing school of thought nowadays is more Apple-esque: you should design software that has one "right" way to do things and adjust that one happy path based on user telemetry. Everyone who doesn't like your One True UX will come around if your software's value proposition is good enough (or at least grit their teeth and keep using it), so it's not worth the effort to create and maintain a bunch of configuration.
  - jwestbury 3y ago
    Having a "right" way to do things also makes it easier to maintain design which meaningfully guides user behaviour. The interaction between design and user experience is quite complicated, and multiplicatively so with >1 UI options.
    - eviks 3y ago
      What's multiplicative about being able to disable/hide "hotels" button and make it smaller by removing the text?
awiesenhofer 3y ago
The craziest thing about this change is that it just looks like Bing Maps now. (only half joking)
- paradox460 3y ago
  I thought I'd accidentally opened up OSMAnd on my car's screen the first time this new color palette changed. Turns out OSMAnd still looks better

gramakri2 3y ago

what we need is skins and themes like... winamp!

loloquwowndueo 3y ago
Winamp was the perfect combination of UX and skeuomorphism.
- goldenkey 3y ago
  It kicks the Llama-7B's ass!
  - Daneel_ 3y ago
    Milkdrop for Google maps: incoming!
    - goldenkey 3y ago
      Taps "Time Walk" and pulls out Jon Finkel's Tinker deck
Doctor_Fegg 3y ago
You jest but it's 100% doable. If I had a spare couple of months I'd build a UI for this on openstreetmap.org. (How you'd do it: move osm.org to vector tiles, use Maplibre GL as the rendering library, enable users to upload and select their own JSON stylesheet, build some sort of rudimentary sharing facility so you could use others' stylesheets)

astrange 3y ago

The teal color is a strange choice because it feels early 2000s. Old phone screens just didn't show darker colors as well.

jamincan 3y ago
That's what I felt too; the color choices feel very dated to me.

digitalapnea 3y ago

Why does it feel like precious few UXs are meaningfully configurable? I see endless discussions at work on how we should tweak UI details, and every time I mention "why don't we just let the user decide" I get unanimously shouted out of the room. What am I missing? Is it that much more work? Is a consistent theme/brand-feel that much more valuable to the business?

Centigonal 3y ago
adding configurability means maintaining lots of different possible states, which may interact with each other and have unexpected emergent effects. This slows down future development and attracts users who lose their minds when you break their pet feature. Some software has succeeded going down the path of high-configurability (mostly FOSS like vim/emacs/sublime/vscode, Calibre, rainmeter), but the prevailing school of thought nowadays is more Apple-esque: you should design software that has one "right" way to do things and adjust that one happy path based on user telemetry. Everyone who doesn't like your One True UX will come around if your software's value proposition is good enough (or at least grit their teeth and keep using it), so it's not worth the effort to create and maintain a bunch of configuration.
- jwestbury 3y ago
  Having a "right" way to do things also makes it easier to maintain design which meaningfully guides user behaviour. The interaction between design and user experience is quite complicated, and multiplicatively so with >1 UI options.
  - eviks 3y ago
    What's multiplicative about being able to disable/hide "hotels" button and make it smaller by removing the text?

awiesenhofer 3y ago

The craziest thing about this change is that it just looks like Bing Maps now. (only half joking)

paradox460 3y ago
I thought I'd accidentally opened up OSMAnd on my car's screen the first time this new color palette changed. Turns out OSMAnd still looks better