Do Images on Google Maps Make Sense?
Does adding images improve the navigation experience by any measure?
I was planning to attend a play at a venue in South Ex which I had not explored before. Now, I perceived South Ex to be a posh locality with wide roads, but parking has always been a problem.
Before this instance, I had never keenly explored Google Maps on the phone app as I generally navigate while driving.
Now I’ll just go through the way in which I discovered this particular feature for the first time.
Narrow Roads
Firstly, the icon indicating narrow roads confirmed my concerns about lack of parking space. This however made me want to pinch the screen and zoom in to check if there are parks around which cars can be “parked”. Haha.
One can’t intuitively understand the the user can pull up the bottom sheet or the drawer to find more information. Though I am not sure how the user can be educated about this, I feel it was probably the first time I pulled up the bottom sheet.
Unclear Images
Now, accidentally or intentionally, I drag up the bottom sheet only to find that there are images along with instructions. My first reaction was “Haa! Cool! They have added images!”. But in reality these images didn’t strike me as similar even though I’ve driven on major roads leading to South Ex.
Even for a driver with 27,000km mileage, the arrow or directions didn’t make much sense. What does the circular pointed arrow mean? How can a normal person see it?
The Helpful Image
The only image that did make sense to me was the one that showed extent of narrowness of roads near the venue. And I didn’t even know that one can click on the image and see the full view until I started writing this post.
Even in this image the arrow kinda wants me to go and crash into a tree trunk. Haha. That said, I just realised I had to leave ten minutes early to find a parking spot and walk the last 200-300 m distance.
Also one can note that the image has no correlation to the map section being shown to the user. All of this made me wonder why Google took so much pains to get these images and add it to the navigation part anyway?
Conclusion
The idea of navigating maps with reference images is a great one. But the Google Maps feature fails on three major fronts.
User education: I feel that the user doesn’t even know that this feature exists. How will they use it when they don’t know it exists?
Lack of clarity: The images are stretched and have little resemblance to the real world. The circular pointed arrows on the image make no sense unless I am living under a rock
Practical Utility: Can a person driving stop in the middle of the road and see these images while driving? Or, are they expected to memorise this like an F1 driver before starting the engine?
Even with a passenger sitting next to you, it would be hard to guide the other person with such images. Forget about two wheelers benefitting from this.
I am unsure how these images can be of substantial value in spite of the practical difficulties. The idea is great but the execution is kinda subpar. Some innovation on the design front plus user research could help Google Maps nail this.
That said, there aren’t many players in the maps space, so the push for such perfection is kinda absent at this point.
Anyway, this is just me venting about difficulties of navigating to a location with a near-monopoly product that has become an integral part of my life.