Categories: MEX NotesOpinions, ideas and new thinkingPathway #1: Network efficient UX design

MEX Notes: Google plays catch-up with offline mapping

  • New Google Maps Mobile App Offers Downloadable Maps For Offline Navigation – Google Maps may be the most frequently used mobile service in the UK (see yesterday's post on ComScore's stats), but the user experience is compromised by the requirement for a data connection. This is one area where Nokia's Symbian devices have a significant user experience advantage: they are equipped with offline maps with fully searchable, turn-by-turn navigation as a standard feature. Given that mapping is frequently at its most useful in foreign countries, where data roaming is expensive, this capability is highly prized by Symbian users. In the last week alone, I have used it to navigate in 3 different countries, without incurring any roaming costs. Google's new feature, which lacks navigation or even the ability to search, is just a small step towards catching up. It will need to improve further.
Marek Pawlowski

Marek Pawlowski is the founder of MEX. Since 1995, he has focused the MEX business on helping digital industries to develop better, more profitable products through improved understanding of user behaviour with mobile devices and wireless networks. MEX is best known for its events, research and consulting, which balance commercial, technical and user insights to define the future of mobile user experience.

Leave a Comment
Share
Published by
Marek Pawlowski
15 years ago

Recent Posts

Design Talk 80. Digitally sustainable; Mirren Fischer, Founder, Brilliant Product Design

Mirren Fischer is someone who finds herself at the confluence of some really big challenges:…

5 years ago

Design Talk 79. Our future towns; Dan Phillips, Royal College of Art

Poetry and place...listening and lockdowns... Dan Phillips, who led the Royal College of Art's (RCA)…

5 years ago

Design Talk 78. Mark Baldino, co-founder, Fuzzy Math

Mark Baldino's path to co-founding a Chicago-based design agency wends its way from a degree…

5 years ago

Design Talk 77. Paul Campbell, Chief Product Officer, Centaur Robotics

Paul Campbell, a former chief designer at Ford, is now re-imagining the wheelchair at Centaur…

6 years ago

Interaction unintended

Opening the oven released a cloud of steam. I should have been expecting it. It's…

6 years ago

Design Talk 76. Placeful computing; Jared Ficklin, Chief Creative Technologist & founding partner, argodesign

Jared Ficklin's approach of 'think by making' has led him to produce remarkable digital design…

6 years ago