GOOGLE MAPS
POSITIVES:
-Really welcoming, well designed illustrations
-very well thought out colour scheme and everything blends in seamlessly – fonts are a perfect choice and very legible, blue stands out against the white, and grey fades into the background but not too much.
-provides many extra pieces of information such as current weather, nearest specific places such as home, restaurants, garages, and grocery shops on the main screen for easy access
-Really nice, straightforward, and effective icon set.
-has a button you can easily press on the main screen to help you get back to where you are located.
NEGATIVES:
-Has arguably too much going on on the screen – making it really confusing and overwhelming for users who don’t already understand the app. Even after using the app for many years myself I can find myself getting easily annoyed with the constant buttons surrounding every side on the map. There are too many buttons at the top of the screen – hiding the map (which is the most important part). And then on top of this they also add a navigation section at the bottom of the screen which blocks even more of the map. I feel if the designers had chosen just one of these or put the search bar at the bottom (along with the navigation) this would be less of an issue.
-Too many unnecessary features – such as the social feature which makes it possible to follow other people and contact businesses through google.
APPLE MAPS
POSITIVES
-Has dark mode option.
-a good number of social features, allows you to gather company information such as email addresses and phone numbers. you can also leave reviews and upload photographs to help other users of the places you’ve been to.
-quickly shows you your favourites including where you parked your car last
-very minimalist screen – easy to see the map and therefore your route. this is done via having bar you can drag up and down so the info underneath the search bar can be hidden for better ability to see the map.
NEGETIVES
-no illustrations – appears to be less welcoming and friendly than google maps
THE TAKEAWAY
Overall I prefer apple maps as a day to day travel app. I feel the UI makes a lot more sense than Google maps as it is minimalist and doesn’t include unnecessary features that make the app confusing and frustrating to use. The map is easily visible and the screen isn’t crowded with unnecessary buttons. There aren’t as many social features however on apple maps so I feel that google maps would possibly benefit someone who was looking to visit new places rather than just wanting to know how to navigate from A to B. In my own app I will make sure to not crowd the screen – but also have a healthy balance of social features – I won’t include the option to follow other users as I feel this is unnecessary but I will allow users to leave reviews on places they have been as well as useful photographs.