Conquering the Interactive Map: notes from my dairy

Creating properties like Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or MSN Maps is quite a challenge. I’ll take you through the various issues that are involved in designing such properties. Lot of people seems to be now a days interested in such products; so I thought I’ll write about some design issues that one needs to understand and solve. These are from my working dairy/notebook.

Objective & Approach

The most basic thing to start the design is to be VERY sure of what the purpose of Maps. Next comes the audience as this defines the kind of approach you can take in building the UI – communication.

Communication elements - building the UI Layout to connect the Map with the information and Search elements.

• This is the most important connection as these three basic elements combine together to make sense to the user. How one compliment the other is critical. Just for your thoughts – “how do you connect the search box with search results? – Proximity? Think about the current Layouts being used “any chances of improvement?”
• How one places the elements helps the user connect the information that appears on the screen. Information Placement and Visual design could easily help you to establish the connection of the information on the page.

Designing and defining the Map – sequential information: connect the zoom but still be uncluttered.

• The most critical part of the Map based products are the Map itself. One very basic difference between a printed and the interactive web map is the ‘zoom’. Zoom adds simplicity to the user but significantly adds complexity for the designer.
• Design the Maps involves a lot of ground works in terms of what is or can be shown to at various zooms. There is practically no mathematical trick that can define what information will come at each zoom level. All this has to be hard coded with a thorough understanding of the local geography and popularity of places.
• Golden rules –
• What is popular should be available at higher zoom
• There should not be clutter in the page; thus proximity of places is an important aspect.
• Area with higher population should be on available at higher zoom
• Area with higher area should be at higher zoom.

• Skelton (the Data) and Visual (the skin) : Map deals with primarily two aspect one is the data – should the National Highway be shown at Zoom 10 or 11 etc? The other aspect is how to show the National Highways (what color? what font? etc). They both are side of the same Coin. They TOGETHER allow you to keep your map in FOCUS. What I mean is that with data and visuals you can play around with what information you what to highlight at what zoom level. Also the visual can help you creating the ‘sense of zooming in or out”.

• Effect of Zoom without information overload: The most complex part is that each zoom level should have a connection with the next higher and lower zoom; it should appear to the user that he is zooming in; at the same time each zoom level should not clutter the map with too much information. I can tell you there is no short cut to getting this right it’s PURELY iterative; but if you are smart you can reduce the levels of iteration significantly.
• Golden rule – define a purpose for every zoom – what have you established in the previous zoom what you want to establish in this level.

Elephant don’t fit in a Rat’s pit

Maps can not solve every problem. The biggest problem is the space that is available. One might argue that this can be increased; yes but it can make the product complex. This might kill the whole purpose of Maps and also the simplicity. Treat Maps as a gateway to finding information- this does not mean that every information has to be provided in the Map itself ;)

There is lot to write…but you have to wait.

Output versus effort trend: When to stop design

I have been involved in two products and both have been pretty extensive in terms of design. One of the important things I have been noticing about the way it is shaping up is the way I have been working. The trend is that at a point the enhancement or improvement in the design ceases to slow down and the effort involved in bringing those enhancements is much more.

What happens is that in the initial phases the output to effort is less as most of the effort goes in getting a hang on the problem. Once the problem is somewhat understood the output shoots up. That’s because the designer understands what are issues or problems that need to be addresses. As the progress goes on there reaches a point when all the problems at a basic level is fixed. Now it’s the turn for enhancement or small improvements. At this level the output that comes is much less that the input required as this deals more at a detail level.

That’s the critical moment; if you ask me there is no end to improvement - it can go for ages. But as a professional we have to decide what is “just good enough”. At a certain level it becomes very difficult for an untrained eye to find a difference between enhancements. So why do we need such an effort which can not be noticed by our user. Now the “golden question” here is WHEN TO STOP. That’s a critical question. A bad decision on this can lead to a poorly finished product. While if you don't stop at a point the product enhancement may not be so much while you might be wasting a significant about of energy and resources. This may sound trivial, but is also one of the critical design decisions – one that can make the difference between a good and a bad product.