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.