Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#11

Post by zweiterlinde » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:23 PM UTC

ambirex wrote: post #5

jankassens wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that this design is quite engineer-driven. It seems, their design is 'just' applied knowledge about perception.

I'd argue that all design is "applied knowledge about perception"

The quotes around 'just' might indicate sarcasm here, in which case the comment is a criticism of a forced dichotomy between engineer- and design-driven.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#12

Post by cma » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:28 PM UTC

I don't think the shading effect is really intentional; it is just an artifact of all labels being anti-aliased. A small font will be lighter than a large font in order to indicate/approximate a smaller stroke-width.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#13

Post by adambyrtek » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:28 PM UTC

The author had to put a considerable effort into preparing the post, and got to some interesting conclusions. I can wholeheartedly upvote such a well researched article. The animated images really show the difference and his alternative variants of Yahoo and Bing demonstrate the point.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#14

Post by jankassens » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:34 PM UTC

samtp wrote: post #7

jankassens wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say that this design is quite engineer-driven. It seems, their design is 'just' applied knowledge about perception.

"Applied knowledge about perception" This is so general that it practically means nothing

What I meant was a scientific approach to design rather than just designing what looks good. But than again every good interface designer should take that approach.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#15

Post by tomkarlo » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:40 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #2

A common complaint is that Google is engineer-driven rather than design driven. Some very impressive counter-evidence in the article -- lots of nice design hacks.

You're assuming they didn't arrive at these settings for borders, weight, classes of label via A/B testing of various alternatives. Google has enough resources available that for something like this it could easily substitute brute-force testing for "best-practice" design (and there's a number of arguments why that might be the better choice, including the fact that design practice seems to evolve over time.)

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#16

Post by zmmmmm » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:50 PM UTC

It's really interesting that Google seems to be at times able to pull off wonderful UI design bordering on genius (Chrome, Google Maps) and at other times just barely able to be at par (most of Android with select exceptions). I guess this just reflects different teams within Google, but it's a shame they can't apply their best UI talent across all their products (and particularly, the products that most need it, like Android).

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#17

Post by davidcann » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 10:57 PM UTC

I agree that Goole Maps look the best, but I think this more so highlights the ineptitude of the other mapping sites. Using contrasting text borders over complex patterns and decent spacing are common design principles that the other sites should adopt.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#18

Post by nodata » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 11:04 PM UTC

zmmmmm wrote: post #16

It's really interesting that Google seems to be at times able to pull off wonderful UI design bordering on genius (Chrome, Google Maps) and at other times just barely able to be at par (most of Android with select exceptions). I guess this just reflects different teams within Google, but it's a shame they can't apply their best UI talent across all their products (and particularly, the products that most need it, lik…

like Android

Huh? Works for me.

Consistent? Perhaps not. Bad design? Hardly, and it's getting better with each release.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#19

Post by gregable » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 11:07 PM UTC

adambyrtek wrote: post #13

The author had to put a considerable effort into preparing the post, and got to some interesting conclusions. I can wholeheartedly upvote such a well researched article. The animated images really show the difference and his alternative variants of Yahoo and Bing demonstrate the point.

I came here to say the same thing. Modifying the maps from bing/yahoo to simulate the effects that google provided must have taken forever. Even doing something like adding an extra pixel or two of white background to 90ish cities would take me hours. Very well polished article.

Re: Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem So Readable?

#20

Post by scott_s » Thu, Dec 02, 2010, 11:16 PM UTC

bdr wrote: post #8

curtis wrote: post #6

The blank space around major cities is the most surprising idea to me.

This might be implemented with the same feature as the lack of clusters: a label suppresses other labels around it, with bigger cities suppressing more. Would be easy to do with a greedy algorithm.

It's not the implementation that surprises me - once I know it's the right thing to do, I can easily figure out a method how. What's surprising is the insight that it is the right thing to do.