GOOGLE MAPS
Evaluating the usability of Google Maps for users with low-level technical literacy.
SUMMARY
Google Maps is a platform that allows users to discover new experiences anywhere from across the world to around the corner. When trying to get directions, I noticed that the people around me often opted to use Google Maps as opposed to other navigation apps.
After light research, I learned that with roughly 154 million monthly users, Google Maps is the most popular navigation app in the United States.
I was immediately curious — what makes Google Maps so enjoyable to use? My team and I embarked on a UX research project to uncover answers.
ROLE
Product Research Lead
TIMELINE
1 week
TEAM
Rohan Erasala (Assistant UX Designer), Anne George (Assistant UX Researcher), Manasi Sridhar (Assistant UX Researcher)
TOOLS
UserTesting.com
SURVEY DESIGN + RECRUITMENT
In order to refine our audience and recruit participants that would give us the most relevant survey responses, my team and I planned out what questions we wanted to ask, the instructions we’d give the user, and the insights that each question would provide us.
IDENTIFYING USER PROBLEMS
Before conducting our usability tests, we created test plans for the Google Maps website and mobile application. Our survey revealed pain points and difficult tasks to complete on the platform, so we began by identifying 3 main questions we wanted to answer:
Does the technical literacy level of the user affect the time it takes to navigate to a location?
How difficult is it for the user to check the travel time between two destinations at a future time?
How easily can a user find a place to stop on the way from Point A to Point B between the two locations?
USABILITY TESTING
After providing a starting URL, we asked users we recruited via UserTesting to complete 7 tasks and provide 3 verbal responses centered around navigating to specific locations, adding changes to the route plan, and setting parking locations. All usability tests were conducted on UserTesting.com.
Storytelling is a powerful tool when it comes to UX, so we structured our usability test in a way that tried to simulate an actual experience of the user finding directions.
STARTING INSTRUCTIONS
Imagine you need to find walking directions to the nearest bus station, then get bus transit directions in order to travel to Bursley Hall at the University of Michigan.
These directions may seem straightforward to some, but what did our participants think?
GROUP RETROSPECTIVE
After concluding our testing, I arranged a team meeting to compare our data and draw connections between our findings. Our test participants generally had a pleasant experience using Google Maps. Even users who had never previously interacted with the platform found the product’s features relatively straightforward, especially those revolving around driving directions.
However, actions centered around bus transit were repeatedly reported both in usability testing and in our initial surveys as unintuitive.
“Driving directions are so easy to follow — I don’t understand why the bus transit directions are so much more difficult to understand.”
“When I changed my directions from car to bus, this huge overwhelming menu popped up with different routes and times and…**AHHHHH! I didn’t even want to go anymore!”
**yes, the user actually yelled
NEXT STEPS
My team and I recommend a redesign of Google Maps bus transit directions to improve the user experience and make the initial interface less overwhelming.
We’d also like to conduct user testing in person in order to observe non-verbal cues such as body language. Additionally, we would benefit from clearly hear every word the participants say since technical difficulties prevented us from hearing some portions of the recording.
Lastly, we’d like to fill in the gaps of our participant database by conducting additional rounds of testing. Specifically, we are lacking data from participants younger than 18 and older than 40 as most of our participants fell within the mid-age range.
WHAT DID I LEARN?
Usability testing directions should be very explicit: After reviewing our data, it seemed like there was a bit of a misunderstanding surrounding our instructions, as some users expressed confusion in what the task was asking them to do. When conducting testing in the future, we will pay closer attention to the detail of our directions and have more sets of eyes look at them.
Leading questions can have a large impact on responses: I initially didn’t anticipate writing questions to be a hurdle during the research process, but what my team thought were well-written questions turned out to have some leading language that unknowingly provokes the user to elicit a certain response. Now that I’m familiar with this language, I know how to write better questions.