{"id":1832673,"date":"2024-07-05T14:35:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T18:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1832673"},"modified":"2024-07-05T14:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T18:35:12","slug":"map-splaining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/07\/map-splaining\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Map-Splaining’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Modern online maps have so much data under the hood, and provide an overabundance of detail, that they can\u2019t help but bombard the user, The Atlantic<\/em>\u2019s Ian Bogost argues<\/a>, coining a term for their \u201csheer exhaustiveness\u201d: map-splaining<\/em>. It\u2019s a challenge to take all that data and make directions comprehensible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The maps know that one road is five lanes wide and the other six; both have medians. They understand that right turns between the streets can be accomplished via dedicated merge lanes that skip the red light. They appreciate that two lanes allow left turns between each of these streets, facilitated by a left-turn-arrow traffic signal. Having all this information helps the maps give their step-by-step instructions: Take the first turn lane from northbound 28th Street, then a quick right into the parking lot for Flatiron Coffee<\/em>. That level of precision may be convenient for some drivers, but it comes at the price of breaking down the built environment into lots of extra segments and transitions that may trigger the display of useless routing information. Perhaps the software should just be telling you to \u201cgo past the light and make a left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Modern online maps have so much data under the hood, and provide an overabundance of detail, that they can\u2019t help but bombard the user, The Atlantic\u2019s Ian Bogost argues, coining a term for their \u201csheer… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,752],"tags":[83,85,82],"class_list":["post-1832673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-mobile","category-navigation","tag-apple-maps","tag-driving-directions","tag-google-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1833226,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/07\/terse-directions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":0},"title":"Terse Directions","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 July 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Adding to the discussion as to whether online maps\u2019 directions are too exhausting, Tim Bray argues for terse directions: \u201cWhen I\u2019m navigating an area I already know about, don\u2019t give me turn-by-turn, just give me a short list of the streets to take.\u201d Right now, Google Maps insists on turn-by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811995,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/01\/online-map-roundup-for-january-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":1},"title":"Online Map Roundup for January 2023","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 January 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"Apple Maps Apple Maps now provides parking information for 8,000 locations in the U.S. and Canada. Apple also launched Business Connect, a tool for businesses to upload their information to be used by Apple\u2019s various apps: not just Maps, though that\u2019s obvious (and something Google has been offering for quite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5568,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/02\/all-online-maps-suck\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":2},"title":"All Online Maps Suck","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 February 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is something I've been meaning to write for a while. I should have written it last December, during the hullaballoo over Apple's maps, but I've never been one to strike when the iron is hot. You'll recall that there were a lot of complaints about Apple's maps app when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5390,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/09\/ios-6-maps-first-impressions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":3},"title":"iOS 6 Maps: First Impressions and More Links","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"23 September 2012","format":"link","excerpt":"I've been poking around with iOS 6 maps on both my fourth-generation iPod touch and on Jennifer's third-generation iPad. My initial impression is that the app is fast and renders streets quickly, and turn-by-turn directions seem to be okay in practice. The satellite imagery comes from different sources than Google's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1808,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/05\/what-happened-to-google-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":4},"title":"‘What Happened to Google Maps?’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 May 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"In an essay called \"What Happened to Google Maps?\" Justin O'Beirne notes that between 2010 and 2016 Google Maps has changed from emphasizing cities at the expense of roads to emphasizing the road network at the expense of cities\u2014a turn he chalks up to the shift to mobile device usage\u2014and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"obeirne-google","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/obeirne-google-1024x558.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/obeirne-google-1024x558.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/obeirne-google-1024x558.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/obeirne-google-1024x558.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1785353,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/04\/spacing-seeks-creative-maps-of-canadian-cities\/","url_meta":{"origin":1832673,"position":5},"title":"Spacing Seeks ‘Creative Maps’ of Canadian Cities","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"9 April 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Spacing magazine is looking for \"creative maps\"\u2014by which they mean pictorial maps or map illustrations\u2014of Canadian cities. There has been an explosion of maps that are not necessarily meant to be used for directions, but instead are considered works of art and inspired imagination. We want you to create an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/spacing-bush-wpg-150x116.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/spacing-bush-wpg-150x116.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/spacing-bush-wpg-150x116.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/spacing-bush-wpg-150x116.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/spacing-bush-wpg-150x116.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1832673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1832675,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832673\/revisions\/1832675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1832673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1832673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1832673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}