I think you’re measuring use-cases by volume (i.e. Monthly Active Users) instead of by mass (i.e. number of man-hours spent engaged with the app’s UI by those users.)
Certainly, a lot of people use Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions. This means that they interact with the actual UI and visible map tiles once, at the beginning of the trip; and then from there on are given timely voice directions every few minutes, which they can maybe contextualize by looking at the map on the screen. Even if you count the time they spend hearing those directions as time spent “interacting with the UI” of Google Maps, it adds up to fewer man-hours than you’d think.
Meanwhile, I believe that there are a much larger number of collective man-hours spent staring at the Google Maps UI—actually poking and prodding at it—by pedestrians navigating unfamiliar cities, or unfamiliar places in their city. Tourists, people with new jobs, people told to meet their friends for dinner somewhere; etc.
And the Google Maps UI (especially the map tiles themselves) is horrible for pedestrians. Half the time you can’t even figure out the name of the road/street you’re standing on; names of arterial roads (like main streets that happen to also be technically highways) only show up at low zoom levels, while names of small streets barely show up at the highest zoom level. And asking Maps to give you a pedestrian or public-transit route to a particular place doesn’t fix this, because GMaps just doesn’t understand what can or cannot be walked through. It thinks public parks are solid obstacles (no roads!) while happily routing you along maintenance paths for subway systems, rail lines, and even airfields. (One time it guided me to walk down the side of an above-grade freeway, outside the concrete side-barriers, squeezing between the barriers and a forest.) And, of course, it still assumes the “entrances” to an address are the car entrances—so, for example, it routes pedestrians to the back alleys behind apartment buildings (because that’s more often where the parking-garage entrance is) rather than the front, where the door is. I don’t live here, Google; I can’t even get into the garage!
The thing is, these are such distinct workflows that there’s no reason for Google Maps to be optimizing for one use-case over the other in the first place. It’s immediately apparent which one you’re attempting by your actions upon opening the app; so why not just offer one experience (and set of map tiles) for people attempting car navigation, and a different experience (and set of map tiles) for people attempting pedestrian wayfinding?
Or, someone could just come out with a wayfinding app for pedestrians that does its own map rendering. There’s already a Transit app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for transit-takers; why not a Walkthere app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for pedestrians? :)
> Or, someone could just come out with a wayfinding app for pedestrians that does its own map rendering. There’s already a Transit app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for transit-takers; why not a Walkthere app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for pedestrians? :)
This wouldn't really make me happy. It makes more sense to integrate the walking instructions into the Transit app and be good at giving directions for multimodal transport. I need to know if I should get off the bus here, and walk through the park, or wait till three stops later, which leaves me closer as the crow flies but further away overall. The car app doesn't need to work multimodally since it's not normal to drive somewhere, walk 10 minutes, then drive somewhere else.
Google maps is still the best general purpose multimodal transport app I've used, but it could be so much better. I'm in Austria right now and it doesn't know about the Austrian buses. There's an app (OEBB Scotty) from the Austrian rail operator which I assume everyone uses instead.
Honestly, the two use cases have an obvious intersection: a planning/wayfinding session in which I want Google to compute me a route that I want to then inspect, perhaps modify, and then save into my planning session.
Certainly, a lot of people use Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions. This means that they interact with the actual UI and visible map tiles once, at the beginning of the trip; and then from there on are given timely voice directions every few minutes, which they can maybe contextualize by looking at the map on the screen. Even if you count the time they spend hearing those directions as time spent “interacting with the UI” of Google Maps, it adds up to fewer man-hours than you’d think.
Meanwhile, I believe that there are a much larger number of collective man-hours spent staring at the Google Maps UI—actually poking and prodding at it—by pedestrians navigating unfamiliar cities, or unfamiliar places in their city. Tourists, people with new jobs, people told to meet their friends for dinner somewhere; etc.
And the Google Maps UI (especially the map tiles themselves) is horrible for pedestrians. Half the time you can’t even figure out the name of the road/street you’re standing on; names of arterial roads (like main streets that happen to also be technically highways) only show up at low zoom levels, while names of small streets barely show up at the highest zoom level. And asking Maps to give you a pedestrian or public-transit route to a particular place doesn’t fix this, because GMaps just doesn’t understand what can or cannot be walked through. It thinks public parks are solid obstacles (no roads!) while happily routing you along maintenance paths for subway systems, rail lines, and even airfields. (One time it guided me to walk down the side of an above-grade freeway, outside the concrete side-barriers, squeezing between the barriers and a forest.) And, of course, it still assumes the “entrances” to an address are the car entrances—so, for example, it routes pedestrians to the back alleys behind apartment buildings (because that’s more often where the parking-garage entrance is) rather than the front, where the door is. I don’t live here, Google; I can’t even get into the garage!
The thing is, these are such distinct workflows that there’s no reason for Google Maps to be optimizing for one use-case over the other in the first place. It’s immediately apparent which one you’re attempting by your actions upon opening the app; so why not just offer one experience (and set of map tiles) for people attempting car navigation, and a different experience (and set of map tiles) for people attempting pedestrian wayfinding?
Or, someone could just come out with a wayfinding app for pedestrians that does its own map rendering. There’s already a Transit app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for transit-takers; why not a Walkthere app with a UI (and map tiles) optimized for pedestrians? :)