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

Post by albertsun » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 2:31 PM UTC

joelhaus wrote: post #34

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…

Related: They're trying (sort of): http://code.google.com/closure/library/ Here's a talk once about their process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=697KX4Ciiws#t=02m40s and a blog post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-makes-design-goo... P.S. Anyone know an easy Maps API trick for setting zoom level to display each of the U.S. states (which vary dramatically in size)?

Post by pbz » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 4:37 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #70

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 couldn't find your bug report or patch anywhere. Do you think people can magically fix bugs you experience without you even telling them what the bug is? (I personally have never seen any of these issues. The main problem I have with Android is the culture of low-quality ad-supported apps, and sadly, that's something a bug report isn't going to fix.)

Post by pbz » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 4:42 PM UTC

ZoFreX wrote: post #71

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…

> The more I use it the more I dislike it. This applies to all technology I've used, ever.

Post by tomkarlo » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 5:54 PM UTC

rmc wrote: post #80

tomkarlo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Post by chc » Fri, Dec 03, 2010, 7:59 PM UTC

blahedo wrote: post #26

gregable wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, apparent…