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

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

#71

Post by ZoFreX »

pbz wrote: post #56
jrockway wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Android a lot easier to use than iOS. What I've noticed when using an iOS device is that I often can't figure out how to do something. Then I research it and discover that it simply can't be done. Easy to learn, but unusable. Android, on the other hand, trades discoverability for usability. I have heard that some Android users don't even know that they can pull down the notification bar. But once you learn to…

I've been using vanilla Android for almost a year now. The more I use it the more I dislike it. By far my number one complaint is bugs. Some of them are so apparent and easily reproducible is simply inexcusable that they're still there (all reported btw). I haven't rooted my Nexus One, so I don't have that to blame either. It gets tiring to click the same message-contact shortcut and sometimes to be taken to the righ…

> The more I use it the more I dislike it.

This applies to all technology I've used, ever.

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

#72

Post by ZoFreX »

iaskwhy wrote: post #3
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.

I was thinking more along the lines of exception to the rule. I honestly have some trouble finding another product by Google which has this attention to detail (design-wise), maybe Chrome...

That's not what that phrase means.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule

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

#73

Post by ljegou »

unwind wrote: post #69
ljegou wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The micro-scale graphical design is good. It's a pity, however, that big geographical and data quality blunders are present on Google Maps. Examples : world projection (Mercator, useless), lack of metadata (dates of the images ?), choice of labels at medium scale (especially with the 'Relief' maps). Such discrepancy between good graphical precision, esthetics and geographical imprecision, lack of quality information…

Uh ... I'm really not a cartographer, but don't you think that you're exaggerating a bit when calling Google Maps "useless" just because if their choice of map projection? I know I've used it, to find, research and understand the layout of, Actual Locations on Earth, more than once. I never even stopped to think about the projection. It would be interesting to hear what you feel would be different in the end-user exp…

Google Maps is not useless, far from it. The projection method chosen (Mercator) is useless for the small scales, and misleading. Except if you are a (XVII° century) marine navigator.

De-zoom and look at the apparent continent sizes, it's just horrible. Half of emerged lands in antarctica ? Groenland the size of Africa ? Think about children exposed to those maps before a good atlas is showed to them.

I co-wrote a paper about this topic, but it's in french : http://mappemonde.mgm.fr/num20/internet/int08401.html

A technical choice (summary : it's easier to have perpendicular parallels and meridians) has prevailed upon a geographical choice. It's not very complicated to link the projection to the scale of the view, all serious geographical internet portals are doing so (IGN, Ordnance Survey, etc.)

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

#74

Post by sole »

pbz wrote: post #56
jrockway wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Android a lot easier to use than iOS. What I've noticed when using an iOS device is that I often can't figure out how to do something. Then I research it and discover that it simply can't be done. Easy to learn, but unusable. Android, on the other hand, trades discoverability for usability. I have heard that some Android users don't even know that they can pull down the notification bar. But once you learn to…

I've been using vanilla Android for almost a year now. The more I use it the more I dislike it. By far my number one complaint is bugs. Some of them are so apparent and easily reproducible is simply inexcusable that they're still there (all reported btw). I haven't rooted my Nexus One, so I don't have that to blame either. It gets tiring to click the same message-contact shortcut and sometimes to be taken to the righ…

I think you're just talking about the applications in a stock Nexus One, not the operating system itself (i.e. the UI, the services it provides, etc). If the apps are lousy it's one thing, but the system behaves quite predictably more often than not.

And yes, the stock apps could do with a bit improvement, but you can always install another alternative app from the market. That's what it is for, isn't it?

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

#76

Post by iaskwhy »

ZoFreX wrote: post #72
iaskwhy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking more along the lines of exception to the rule. I honestly have some trouble finding another product by Google which has this attention to detail (design-wise), maybe Chrome...

That's not what that phrase means.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule

I find that link pretty interesting but I still don't understand why you say that. I'm saying Google caring about design on Google Maps is the exception that proves the rule (the rule being that they don't care much about design).

Can you help me understand why it's wrong?

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

#77

Post by ollysb »

sole wrote: post #74
pbz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using vanilla Android for almost a year now. The more I use it the more I dislike it. By far my number one complaint is bugs. Some of them are so apparent and easily reproducible is simply inexcusable that they're still there (all reported btw). I haven't rooted my Nexus One, so I don't have that to blame either. It gets tiring to click the same message-contact shortcut and sometimes to be taken to the righ…

I think you're just talking about the applications in a stock Nexus One, not the operating system itself (i.e. the UI, the services it provides, etc). If the apps are lousy it's one thing, but the system behaves quite predictably more often than not. And yes, the stock apps could do with a bit improvement, but you can always install another alternative app from the market. That's what it is for, isn't it?

In my experience that's a distinction iphone owners don't need to make.

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

#78

Post by buro9 »

What surprises me most about this is that this is a solved problem.

Labels on maps, proximity to their data point, shades to represents importance, placing of labels to ensure clarity... all of this has long been solved in the area of automated report generation, and specifically things like bubble charts.

All that I see when I look at a Google Maps is all of the solutions to the problem of producing legible and clear reports applied to a map.

All that I see when I look at Bing and Yahoo mapping are solutions that have only looked at the domain of mapping and haven't considered whether other domains have solved these problems.

I don't see "tricks" by Google, I just see a set of solutions from one area being applied to the same essential problems in another area.

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

#79

Post by kunley »

scott_s wrote: post #20
bdr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My guess is that it may be the practice used since years by designers of printed maps, ang Google has just consulted the right people on the topic.

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

#80

Post by rmc »

tomkarlo wrote: post #15
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.)

Although A/B testing is very likely, how would you measure success/failure? "Person took x sec to see 'New York'" ? How do you measure that?
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