Now, Where Were We?

In the beginning there was the map, and it was good. It allowed you to get from point A to point B without wandering aimlessly around in between. For the next few hundred years there was still the map, drawn and then printed on papyrus or vellum or paper and we were happy enough.

Then someone invented satellite navigation, arguably one of the most amazing pieces of technology ever invented. Having machines for writing words or adding numbers or communicating with each other we could and did see coming, but sat nav came out of left field. Who could have guessed that we would have had maps that actually tell you where you are? Amazing, unless you are a teenager in which case you probably have grown up with it and have no idea of what the fuss is about.

It was only made available to people without guns less than twenty years ago and, given the time needed to develop consumer products, only became ubiquitous in the last ten years. One of the many things that I admire Google for is their dedication to recording the planet with aerial and street level photography and resisting the temptation to only release the data on a series of expensive DVDs. That would have been the old anal-retentive way of doing it. Instead it is given away via your computer browser and, once the screens got big enough, your phone. Brilliant. Their adventures in mapping have been useful beyond measure and given everyone with a computer a much clearer view of the world in which we live.

But, and there is always a 'but', Google seem to have caught something from Microsoft. It is a creeping, invidious condition called 'minimalism'. Microsoft have been practicing it for a while now, no doubt because there will be a new generation of designers among their ranks who worship at the altar of 'clean', 'pared down' graphic interfaces and will pour scorn on anyone who disagrees.There is a certain attraction to making things more simple to understand, shortening the period needed to make it navigable. The problem is, you can go too far. Microsoft are slowly learning this lesson with Windows 8. Simple is only good to the point that it becomes counter-productive. Hiding things so that they don't 'clutter' the interface surprisingly makes them more difficult to find - who would have guessed it?

The other manifestation of minimalism is that functionality is also pared down. Why allow the user to use a comprehensive set of tools when we can make their life so much better by taking some of them away? Again Microsoft have been doing this for a while but Google now seem to be following the same route. This is presumably because that same generation of designers who are trying to make their mark by doing something, anything, different to the previous lot which, for the moment is minimalism, work for them as well.

Back to maps. Google have (had) an excellent product in Google Maps. It was clear and clean and easy to use. Apparently not easy and clean enough though so, along with a number of Google products, they have revamped the graphic interface. They have now taken many of the unsightly buttons and hidden them. If the hidden buttons themselves were still too cluttered they culled them. It is now a guessing game trying to figure out how things work and, indeed, if they are still there. Functionality is now, apparently, 'Old School' so the ability to store maps offline has been banished to an arcane series of button presses known only to the cogniscenti. I have the deep suspicion it shouldn't be possible at all but a small group of the older guys have hidden it from the bright young things.

The main gripe I have with it is 'My Maps'. I have been using these for route planning and location marking for a while. I can sit in my office with my nice big computer monitor and plan things easily. I can then call up this information via Google Maps on my mobile phone without having to remember to do anything in advance. It is just there. I can look at my phone and see any of the growing number of maps I have saved on my computer in the office. Genius.

At least it was until the minimalists took over. The latest version of Google maps no longer allows this. You can still do it by opening your phone's browser and going in the back way (thanks again there Old Guys, keep up the good work, your day will come again) but it is nowhere near as convenient as it used to be. Why is this? What possible harm was it doing?

Anyway. I'm waiting for the old guys to form a posse and ambush the bright young things and put them in a room without a doorhandle. At least they will be able to appreciate the minimalism of it while they sit there in the gloom and slowly get the point.