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

41latitude.com

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

#21

Post by boucher »

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…

Google does an above average, and often good job, at actual usability challenges. But they are pretty universally bad at making things that people would consider beautiful.

Chrome gets usability issues right. Things like their tab closing behavior, the almost total lack of dialogues, one click bookmarking, etc. are all really great. But Chrome is not a beautiful app. Its toolbar icons are fairly childish, its tabs just a bit off.

I'd say that trend holds through most of their products.

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

#22

Post by zmmmmm »

nodata wrote: post #18
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.

I didn't (and wouldn't) say Android is badly designed. It's OK, and I'd even say certain parts are beautiful, but it's quite uneven and some parts do actually border on ugly. It is certainly good enough for me, but for most people I think the bar has been raised to stratospheric levels by Apple and people now have really high expectations of the visual experience they should get from phone OSes.

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

#24

Post by blahedo »

When I saw this I could have sworn I had read it before, but in fact what I was remembering were earlier posts by the same guy (also comparing Google, Bing, and Yahoo maps); if you liked this post you might like them too:

http://www.41latitude.com/post/557224600/map-comparison http://www.41latitude.com/post/1130407638/map-comparison-2

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

#25

Post by zmmmmm »

boucher wrote: post #21
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…

Google does an above average, and often good job, at actual usability challenges. But they are pretty universally bad at making things that people would consider beautiful. Chrome gets usability issues right. Things like their tab closing behavior, the almost total lack of dialogues, one click bookmarking, etc. are all really great. But Chrome is not a beautiful app. Its toolbar icons are fairly childish, its tabs ju…

> But Chrome is not a beautiful app

I guess it's totally subjective and therefore fairly meaningless, but I think Chrome is the most visually appealing of any browser right now. This is partly, I guess, because its primary virtue is minimalism, but the parts that are there are beautiful, I think.

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

#26

Post by blahedo »

gregable wrote: post #19
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.

Not to detract from the work he did (it's still not easy, and it's good work), but a lot of that could be programmatic---select all pixels that are near-black to extract the text, copy them to a separate layer, enlarge selection by 1.5 pixels, flood fill white, and then paste the original text on top of that. A certain amount of massaging is necessary, but it probably wouldn't be "hours" just for that.

Also, apparently Google has an API that lets you extract specific layers, e.g. just the text (he mentions using this in the article). Makes sense in retrospect, but it's cool to know anyway.

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

#27

Post by asnyder »

zmmmmm wrote: post #22
nodata wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

like Android Huh? Works for me. Consistent? Perhaps not. Bad design? Hardly, and it's getting better with each release.

I didn't (and wouldn't) say Android is badly designed. It's OK, and I'd even say certain parts are beautiful, but it's quite uneven and some parts do actually border on ugly. It is certainly good enough for me, but for most people I think the bar has been raised to stratospheric levels by Apple and people now have really high expectations of the visual experience they should get from phone OSes.

I don't know about you, but Android 2.2 is pretty beautiful. I had an iPhone for a while and personally feel the design of Android is significantly more natural to me. Best of all if you don't like how something behaves, you can usually swap it out.

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

#29

Post by thezilch »

boucher wrote: post #21
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…

Google does an above average, and often good job, at actual usability challenges. But they are pretty universally bad at making things that people would consider beautiful. Chrome gets usability issues right. Things like their tab closing behavior, the almost total lack of dialogues, one click bookmarking, etc. are all really great. But Chrome is not a beautiful app. Its toolbar icons are fairly childish, its tabs ju…

I adore both the usability and appearance of Chrome (icons, tabs, etc) -- Chrome is beautiful in this beholder's eyes.

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

#30

Post by [deleted] »

zmmmmm wrote: post #25
boucher wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google does an above average, and often good job, at actual usability challenges. But they are pretty universally bad at making things that people would consider beautiful. Chrome gets usability issues right. Things like their tab closing behavior, the almost total lack of dialogues, one click bookmarking, etc. are all really great. But Chrome is not a beautiful app. Its toolbar icons are fairly childish, its tabs ju…

> But Chrome is not a beautiful app I guess it's totally subjective and therefore fairly meaningless, but I think Chrome is the most visually appealing of any browser right now. This is partly, I guess, because its primary virtue is minimalism, but the parts that are there are beautiful, I think.

[deleted]
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