Jamie Handstands got a makeover - new colors, new logo, new vibe.

It’s time to put on my thinking cap, or maybe more accurately, my creative cap. Hence the yellow bucket hat.

This week I want to talk about my proposed feature improvements for a tool that I use religiously when I travel: Google Maps.

First of all, I find it interesting that my main source of information for travel is not on an app designated or marketed for travelers or tourists. Rather, it is web service and app focusing on documenting geographical regions and sites worldwide. It works very well for travelers because it is:

• Widely adopted (therefore has “open source” reviews and photos)

• A trustworthy source of directions around the globe

• Both a public and private resource for the user

Google Maps has competitors such Apple Maps or Waze for giving directions, but there is basically no alternative to the array of information provided on businesses such as hours and contact information, and more importantly, reviews and photos.

When I travel, I would love to carry a Lonely Planet pocket guide with me at all times, but this is not feasible because of the cost, space constraints, and availability of specific places. Google Maps solves all of this.

However, I want to focus on the private user experience for travelers. Google Maps allows people (accounts) to save sites (or pins) to “Lists,” but this feature could be enhanced in many ways.

Pain Points

1. Lists are unorganized

   1. All icons on a list are the same

   2. There are no filtering or drill-down capabilities

   3. Icons are not customizable

   4. Hard to find the list that I’ve already made when saving sites

2. Lists are hard to toggle between my list and the normal experience

Let’s dive into it.

#1 Lists are Unorganized

All icons on a list are the same

The lists get cluttered very fast. I would venture to say any list with 5+ pins is inefficient and indistinguishable. The pins consume most of the visible map space and the colors confuse the user. Users are used to seeing pink for accommodation, blue for shopping, orange for eating, etc. However, when you save a site on a list, the color of the list trumps and now all items on the list, no matter the category, are colored the same.

For example, my “Want to go” and “Favorites” lists over Buenos Aires, Argentina is a mess:

Google Maps made some improvements in the last 1-2 years by allows users to add emojis to their lists, but the update is very limited. See example video here.

This feature would work well if you were living in a city and saved all the coffee shops you tried. You could add a coffee emoji and your map would be filled with your customized coffee sites. This brings me to my next point:

There are no filtering or drill-down capabilities

However, let’s an example on a smaller scale, for a small historic town just across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires - Colonia del Sacramento. I at first tried saving my 5 recommendations (2 sites to see, 1 district, 1 restaurant, and 1 bar) under one list and named it “Colonia del Sacramento” and added a Uruguay flag emoji.

However, this was too crowded, and if I sent it to my friend, they would have to click each saved place to understand what I was trying to share. And worse yet, when my friend is in the mood for a beer, she cannot easily spot the place to go!

My next attempt was to make multiple lists for each category.

But this workaround solution creates more problems than it solves:

1. I (the creator) have to maintain multiple lists for one project or idea.

2. When I share multiple lists, the receiver/follower has to then save multiple lists (no one-click option).

3. Most importantly, Google Maps list order is unorganized and mixes locations (based on recently interacted with I believe). It’s a cluttered list with no search capability.

I found that the food influencer cammienoodle (and I’m sure many others) work around this downfall by organizing their lists online. The follower has to find the website, click on the list that suits their needs, and save each individual one. So for a person traveling to Taipei, they have to save both the food list and activities list.

If Google Maps does have a drill-down improvement in the future, I would hope that the creator could not only edit the name and icon, but could also drop a pin for the larger site. For example, I would not save the Buenos Aires” pin in my Buenos Aires list because it would add a pin in the city center that does not add any value. However, the viewer of the list would still like to see the site information like photos, reviews, and quick facts about the city.

Icons are not customizable

Although creators can choose an emoji for a list, the icon is not customizable. For example, for cammienoodle, she would benefit from having her influencer brand label (or even face) as icons on the maps. Her followers could save her Taipei food recommendations for their upcoming trip and easily find the ones that she recommended.

Hard to find the list that I’ve already made when saving sites

As I said before, Google Maps List view is unorganized itself with no options to sort or filter and no search. I believe it is sorted automatically by most recent usage, or maybe even frequency. For creators creating lists, this will induce unnecessary scrolling and frustration.

#2 Lists are hard to toggle between my list and the normal experience

Sometimes I want to see my saved places and sometimes I do not. Google Maps does a great job at predicting when you want the icons smaller or larger based on zoom, but I think they can improve the toggle between seeing sites in a list and the normal map experience.

Right now, the user has to click on “Saved” and then the 3 dots of each list to toggle on and off to view. However, this preference changes often and needs to be more accessible.

I believe there should be a button next to the layer button which allows the user to toggle on and off all lists, but also has more functionality like filtering visibility with different haptics like holding the button down.

There is great potential for Lists in Google Maps for private and public recommendations

I’ve shared and received MANY forms of travel recommendations, but I believe Google Maps can capitalize on an even bigger opportunity here by improving the Lists features and usability. I am tired of getting 10 Google Maps links in a string of text messages from a friend when I say I’m visiting the same city they just traveled to, or even opening up a shared list of 150 dots with no organization.

As someone who wants to use Google Maps to recommend places to my friends, family, and more, I see great potential for Google Maps to improve these features. My vision is that sharing personalized travel recommendations will become increasingly popular, decreasing algorithmic or pushed recommendations.

If you have additional suggestions or just want to share your thoughts, respond to my email!