avatarMadi Ramsey

Summary

The context discusses a UX case study on improving Google Maps for planning trips to new areas, focusing on the "Saved Routes" feature.

Abstract

The article presents a UX case study aimed at enhancing Google Maps for planning trips to new areas. The author, who has a poor sense of direction, found Google Maps to be an essential tool during a trip to Budapest. Through user and market research, the author identified two user types: logistic-oriented users and explorers. The study focuses on two areas of improvement: exploring and connecting, and organizing and planning. After considering potential solutions, the author decided to implement the "Saved Routes" feature, allowing users to save their optimized routes for future use. The study explores different entry points for saving and accessing routes, ultimately choosing to integrate the feature into the existing "Saved" tab on the homepage. The author also refined the flow for naming and saving routes to folders and optimized the visual design for consistency with Google Maps' branding.

Opinions

  • The author believes that Google Maps is an essential tool for exploring new areas and getting directions.
  • The author identifies two distinct user types: logistic-oriented users and explorers, each with unique needs and preferences.
  • The study suggests that adding a larger social element to Google Maps could help users find more places to explore through their network of friends. However, user feedback indicates that a large social component might complicate the navigation app and drive some users away.
  • The author emphasizes the importance of organization and efficiency in the "Saved Routes" feature, with user feedback supporting the use of folders for route organization.
  • The author highlights the need for visual consistency with Google Maps' branding and creates a UI kit to maintain this consistency.
  • The author believes that the "Saved Routes" feature will allow users to take full advantage of Google Maps' mapping and exploration capabilities by letting them plan trips in advance.
  • The author encourages readers to share their thoughts and connect with them to discuss the case study further.

Google Maps: saving the road ahead — a UX case study

Plan now, Go Later.

I have a lousy sense of direction, so Google Maps has always been my right-hand app. On a whim last year, I decided to skip the beach and sunburn and head to Budapest for spring break. That’s when Google Maps became my best friend.

When I wasn’t admiring the Buda Castle or bathing in the Széchenyi Thermal Baths, I was on Google Maps. Google Maps helped me decide where to eat, how many attractions I could see in a day, what public transportation to take, and — when I inevitably got lost — how to get back to my Airbnb.

I learned that when I take a trip to a new area, I want to explore and engage with that place as much as possible. This is difficult because:

  1. I don’t always know which places to explore
  2. I don’t know how to optimize my route to make sure I get to all of the places I want to see
  3. I don’t know where to save my ideas and plans in one place

First Things First

User Research

I interviewed ten users to understand how people use Google Maps to plan daily activities. I found two distinct user-types:

  1. Logistic-Oriented. These are users who use Google Maps daily to optimize their routes. They like to focus on numbers: trip duration, mileage, and traffic delays.
  2. Explorers. These users might not use Google Maps as their primary navigation app. They use it to find things to do, pin locations they want to visit, and see what those places look like using Street View.

In general, both user types agreed: Google Maps is great at 1) helping you decide where to go and 2) helping you get there.

Market Research

Logistic-oriented users praised Google Maps for having the most accurate GPS information. Users also agreed that Google Maps promotes exploration more than other navigation apps.

Feature comparison among top navigation apps.

Although Google Maps lets you share your route progress and favorite places with friends, it has very limited social elements — especially compared to apps like Waze. I thought this could be an interesting opportunity area. Could adding a larger social element help users find even more cool places to explore through their network of friends?

After acquiring a hefty stack of sticky notes and recruiting two friends, we got to work brainstorming ways that Google Maps could be even more useful to me on my next spring break trip.

Identifying Opportunity Areas

Two areas of improvement stuck out for enhancing trips to new areas:

  1. Exploring + Connecting. This would give users even more ideas of places to visit when traveling.
  2. Organizing + Planning. This would help users optimize their routes and get to all the places they want to go efficiently.

With this in mind, we narrowed our potential solutions down to 4 viable features:

Pros and cons for potential solutions.

Although including friend activity might give users more ideas for places to go, user feedback helped me understand that a large social component would overly complicate a navigation app — and actually drive some users away.

I wanted a solution that would appeal to both the logistic-oriented users and explorers. After accounting for feasibility and impact, I chose my final solution.

Pinpointing My Destination

I decided to go with the Saved Routes feature.

Thanks to Google Maps, we have a lot of valuable information at our fingertips. After going through the trouble of finding the best route for you — shouldn’t you be able to save it for later?

Getting There

Choosing an Entry Point

The first step was exploring how users would access this feature. I wanted the entry point to be visible and intuitive. However, I didn’t want it to be so prominent that it distracted from Google Maps’ main goal of getting you from point A to point B. I played around with different entry points to explore how users might save their routes:

Medium-fidelity explorations for the Saved Routes feature entry point.

I decided that Screen B accomplished this goal best. I thought putting the entry point on the home screen like Screen A might enhance visibility — but, user testing showed that it made more sense to save the route only after actually creating it. Although Screen C could serve as an additional entry point, I decided to focus on one main access point for my study.

Accessing Saved Routes

Examining the information hierarchy of Google Maps, I got a good feel for where a list of saved routes might fit in. The ‘Saved’ tab on the homepage seemed like a pretty logical choice to me.

Information hierarchy for Google Maps. Blue indicates that the branch was added for my Saved Routes feature.

Next, I wanted to explore what the ‘Saved Routes’ page might look like. I decided that it would be helpful to have folders to organize routes — but I wasn’t sure what the best layout would be.

Medium-fidelity flows for accessing Saved Routes.

User feedback confirmed that organization is a top priority. Participants agreed that folders would help with organization, but they didn’t want to be forced to use them. They also liked the idea of sorting and searching for routes. I ended up choosing a design most similar to Screen A because it was most visually consistent with similar Google Maps features and it would allow users to filter their routes so they could find them efficiently.

Paving Over the Potholes

After establishing the entry points for saving and accessing routes, I turned to optimizing my flows for efficiency and visual design.

Naming and Saving Routes to Folders

Originally, my flow for naming and saving a route had 3 separate steps: naming a route, deciding whether to save it to a folder, and choosing a folder to save it in. User feedback showed that I could enhance this flow by combining steps.

Although Flow B combines all 3 steps, the pop-up is overly crowded and visually unappealing. I ended up going with a flow most similar to Flow C, which gives users more information about each folder and is easier to read.

Next, I focused on visual design. I made the following adjustments to make sure I was staying consistent with the Google Maps brand.

Changes in design to maintain visual consistency with Google Maps.

I ended up creating a Google Maps UI Kit to help me stay visually consistent. Because I’m building off of Google’s work, I knew visual consistency would be key to integrating my feature successfully.

Editing Previously Saved Routes

Finally, I focused on how users could edit their Saved Routes. At first, I wanted to have a prominent Edit Button to draw attention to it. Then, I realized this would be changing the flow that Google Maps has in place.

The Ellipses Button in the upper-right corner of the screen already lets users edit!

Medium-fidelity flows for editing Saved Routes.

I decided to go with Screen C. This screen maintains the editing flow that Google Maps already has by using the Ellipses Button. The highlighted Saved Button also provides feedback so users know they are editing a previously saved route.

Arrived.

After polishing off my flows and visual design, it was time to put the pieces together.

Finalized Flows

Final high-fidelity flow for saving routes.
Final high-fidelity flow for accessing routes.

I also created a prototype to show how users would interact with the feature within the actual Google Maps app.

Google Maps is already great at helping users explore new places and helping them get there. My hope is that saving routes will allow users to take full advantage of the mapping and explore capabilities by letting them plan trips in advance. Users can then feel good about taking the time they need to create the best route for them knowing they can save it and come back to it later.

Thanks for tuning in to my first case study! I really enjoyed gaining design experience through Cornell AppDev’s Digital Product Design class and can’t wait to continue developing my UI/UX skills in the future. If you have any thoughts, feel free to connect— I’d love to hear them!

UI
Visual Design
Google Maps
Case Study
User Experience
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