Design & UX Tips for Maps – Patrick Arlt
Design & UX Tips for Maps
Patrick Arlt
Experience Developer - Esri Portland R&D Center
Why Make Maps?
- To help people find things
- To help people make decisons
- To visualize information
Lets find the… Nevermind…
Map Portals… Not even once
Not Just Map Portals
Lets go to the park… Not…
Some Real-World Metrics
Lession: Be consice your map should do one thing well.
Lession: Don't neglect your popups.
2% of visitors changed basemaps, 0.5% used fullscreen.
Lession: Less is more. Reduce your tools and layers.
Auto completing search is key. Average visit was 1:43.
Lession: Get users in an out as fast as possible.
Lession: Users care about a single feature.
- Reduce noise
- Let there be search
- Pages for individual features
- In and out at NASCAR speed
- Focus on a single topic
Treat Everyone Like An Idiot
- You
- Your Users
- Your Coworkers
- Your Boss
Learn How Much
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Summit
1pm-6pm Wednesday
Santa Rosa/San Jacinto
Your design is C.R.A.P!
C is for Contrast
R is for Repetition
If its good enough to put on the page once its good enough to put on there again.
- Show popups on hover AND click?
- Filter a map AND and a list?
- Introduce shortcuts and keyboard commands?
A is for Area
Are the biggest things the most important?
P is for Proximity
How far apart are important elements? How long will it take a user to find them?
Design Is All About Balance
Ugly is Good
Remember Me?
Good and Bad
Pros
- Single focused mission
- Individual pages for features
- Search first design
Cons
- Search is really hard
- Maps are klugdy
- You - Right Now
UX Fund
In 2006 TeeHan+Lax invested $50,000 dollars in 10 companies they thought enbodied good design and UX.
One year later their investment matured 39.3%. Better then NASDAQ, The S&P 500, and the NYSE.
http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/ux-fund-matures-up-393/Thanks
Twitter : @patrickarlt
Slides : http://bit.ly/1h4kDld