Is it me or 3.0's usability is substandard?

Yesterday I updated Ovi Maps to 3.0b7, the latest one available on the Beta Labs page. There are several things about 3.0 that can be considered "cool". The startup time is awesome, a "blink of an eye" is what users expect. Also the pro-touch interface is better than 2.0's menu-driven, even for me, an old-school computer admin who prefers command line to clickable interface.

But on the other hand some choices made in 3.0 annoy and some make the overall user experience a substandard one. These are not what one might expect from "the next generation" product.

First things first, let's assume I'm in a center of foreign city, trying to find a nearest italian restaurant, a coffee shop or a post office. I unlock my N97, press Maps icon and choose "My position", then press "Search" link at the bottom and...

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I was trying numerous tricks to find some kind of "what do you want to search for?" menu but I failed. All I get is an input field with "Pizza or Paris". I'm definitely not searching for Paris from "My location" -- I'd search for Paris from "Find places" so this is kind of annoying example. I want to know where is the nearest coffee shop? What do I do, besides typing in the name of yet-uknown POI? How do I phrase "I don't know the name, you find me something"?

Alternatively, imagine yourself stopping for a red light and trying to find a nearest petrol station. You have to type "petrol station". Or maybe "petrol station" in my native language? Who knows? The interface is in english... After 36 taps [one error; one pause] I finnaly have "PETROL STATION" typed in. The light turns green and other drivers start to use horn at me. I'm stuck with a text input screen and no navigation.

Requiring user to type something is bad enough. Leaving this an only way to search for POIs is just plain stupid choice. There should be a menu or set of icons enabling user to quickly choose POI category they wish to search for. Like it was in 2.0, a feature I was very fond of. [This is one of the main features of phone with a GPS built-in; an ability to find things fast].

Okay, so you can turn on those little POI icons. It'd be great if it wasn't turned off by default! You have to go into settings/options/wrench screen to make them appear on the map. A great idea, considering that most of the people are either too lazy or too afraid of changing default application settings. POI visibility should be controled by a "Show POIs" checkbox on the main menu, not a checkable list third level deep in configuration.

But how an average user, who doesn't use the settings ["wrench"] icon should know you POIs can be showed on the map? Maybe there's a help page available. One might expect that by pressing a "?" icon from the main menu screen user would get something actually helpful. No way! It's an info screen. Why it's under "?" icon, and not under "i" or "i-in-a-cricle" icon? Why there's no help icon available right from the main menu screen? Usability failure, I say.

There's one more thing in 3.0 that annoys me so much I'd like express my view. Why, during the navigation, the buttons at the bottom ["Options" and "Stop" or "My position"] look like actual buttons and in non-navigation mode there is a menu bar instead? I think it should be consistent between the operation modes -- choose either a menu bar or buttons and stick to it. I'd prefer seeing buttons since the touch interface is advertised as one of the 3.0's key features while old clickety-click phones with nav butons above keyboard can still access those as well.

I belive that if a user experience from only 24 hours of usage can be described as "substrandard" there's a long way to go before releasing a non-beta version. The find POI feature is a must. I won't even think about subscribing to the service when my came-with-N97 license expires if I cannot find what I want easily. This is what most of us expect from maps software, don't you think?

--
rafamiga
N97 v12

Comments

Submitted by rafamiga on 17-09-2009 00:28.

MODERATORS, sorry about that, I was using some notepad document to write my thought before posting and seems like I pasted too much. Please edit or delete the above post.

Submitted by mbrett on 17-09-2009 10:41.

That way you can delet what you did not intend to post ;-)

mbrett
N97 RM-505 (Product Code: 0585262 (Vodafone UK)) FW 11.0.021
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.015

Submitted by Anonymous30740 on 17-09-2009 18:53.

There IS an option to edit your post. A little "edit" button appears on the bottom left of the actual post itself if you are the poster. It would be right next to the "report this post as problematic" button.

Ravi

Submitted by rafamiga on 17-09-2009 22:02.

Thank you for pointing out the "edit" buton. Unfortunately, the CSS for this page is broken, making it invisible to my browser -- it shows only "To top". But I've checked page's HTML source and found the link to /node/4499/edit.

I'm glad you showed me the way to edit the post -- I was so embarassed my whole scratchpad went in here...

Submitted by Anonymous30740 on 17-09-2009 22:38.

Hehe glad you got it figured out. Now here are some suggestions based on the searching problems you mentioned.

To find Italian restaurants, search for "Italian".
To find coffee shops, search for "Coffee".
To find petrol stations, search for "Petrol". (don't have to type in "Petrol station")

Although the specific categories aren't listed like they were before, you can still type the category name and get search results. Granted, it was more useful to have the categories listed as they were before so you could just select one, but I just wanted to point out the possibility.

And you do realize that "e.g. Pizza or Paris" is an example right? You don't have to only search for pizza or paris. :D You can type in anything there.

People seem to be having a lot of trouble understanding the search system. Here's the lowdown. From the homescreen, you can select "My position" then the "search" button, and it will show you the search field. Or from the homescreen you can directly select "Find places", and it will show you the search field. THEY ARE BOTH THE EXACT SAME THING.

I hope this clears up the search function a bit. It is actually fairly powerful, if you think of it as the same as the google maps search field where you just type in anything. Granted the ovi maps one needs a better search algorithm, but it's the same concept.

ps. Would it help if they replaced "e.g. Pizza or Paris" with the text "Type a search phrase here..."? People seem to be immensely confused by pizza or paris. :D

Submitted by rafamiga on 17-09-2009 23:07.

I do know "Pizza or Paris" is an example. I was being a little sarcastics, and so were you, judging by the smiley. 8^)

But my point is that people are lazy and tend to go for the simplest solution. "Italian" is 14+2 taps. "Petrol" is 13+2 taps. Try counting taps for "Restaurant". And what about when I'm not specific about my needs, just want to see "what's around here"? Do I have to type "anything" or "whatever"? [More sarcasm.]

No option in a pro-touch interface should be more than 4 taps away. One tap for "search", a tap for "categories" [which I imagine as a icon on the right of the search bar] , one tap for "eat & dring" and one tap for "italian". Same for "search", "categories", "entertainment", "cinemas". After those 4 taps I'd be presented with a list of places sorted by distance. And by distance I mean not "687 meters" but "about 700 m." and not "7,143 meters" but "7 km away". 687 meters is useless unless you're a ghost and walk in a straight line through walls and roads full of traffic.

C'mon, simplicity is why iPhone is so popular. Making user type in things instead of using "point and click" interface is plain wrong choice. If it simplicity is not the winning, why are you using an interface derived from Xerox's work [mouse&windows] instead of text-only terminal? You'll get the same content, here for sure. 8^)

One moe thing. When I'm in Stockholm, do I have to type in "cinema", "bio" [Swedish] or "kino" [Polish; it's my system locale and search mends results in polish]?

Your P.S. is exactly what I think about the "p or P" situation. 8^)

Submitted by Anonymous30740 on 17-09-2009 23:59.

Your point is well taken, and I do agree with you rafamiga. Sorry I didn't catch your sarcasm before ... I've seen one too many posts on here by people who actually DON'T realize that you can type something other than "pizza" or "paris". :)

You're right about having more touch-friendly search options. For one, NOBODY in America says the word "petrol"; we all say "gas". It took me a little while to realize that I need to type in "petrol" if I want to search for gas stations. And in any event, I should just be able to find those with the press of a menu option like you're saying.

Anyway, here's to wishing! I have fairly low standards for nokia maps ever since they decided to release an obviously buggy beta version the last time around.

Submitted by navio1973 on 18-09-2009 00:34.

there is a tip so search POI like before
read this:
http://betalabs.nokia.com/forum/topic/4244

but it is true, to find something it is not so easy and very slow
read my comment #24 in http://betalabs.nokia.com/forum/topic/4140#comment-18337

Navio
Nokia N97 V12.0.024 RM 505

Submitted by rafamiga on 20-09-2009 12:21.

Don't you agree that the bare existence of "tips" to emulate functionality that is handy enough for >5% of users is a design misconception?...

One more thing not to make textual search the only one available -- what do I search for when I'd like to get a coffee? Should I search for "coffee" or "cafe"? Or "kawiarnia" in Warsaw? Or "kav

Submitted by Flying2U on 20-09-2009 17:20.

Finding something should be intuitive and easy. Guessing the right spelling and trying a multitude of combinations is not good enough. This is supposed to be a mobile device, used on the move. How can it meet that criteria, if have to stop and type everything. I think Nokia should take the whole development team to a foreign city, give them Ovi Maps and wait. If anyone ever finds their way back, maybe they will get the point!

Submitted by tuxStyle on 28-09-2009 21:04.

I live in Montreal.

Until a few minutes ago i couldn't figure out why i can't find any address :)
How the hell should i know i have to search using only the first three characters of the postal code?
Which anyway will give a very bad location ... most of the time hundred of meters away.

Not saying about street names :)
If i search: "xxx" street i get no results.

To actually find the street i have to search for: rue "xxx"

Going deep... NNN rue "xxx" is not working
I have to use: rue "xxx" NNN

C'mon what the hell?
I'm not expecting to do auto correction for me (like google maps is doing) but if i have the phone in English i expect to be able to use English terms :)

NokiaBetaLabs

Ovi Maps Beta for mobile (v3.03)

Is it me or 3.0's usability is substandard?

Comments