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Nobody hates change like app customers, and the newest modifications that Google has made to the colours in its Google Maps app are ruffling customers’ feathers all around the internet. Google Maps customers on Reddit have called the brand new colours “godawful” and expressed how they “hate” the modifications. Even Google Maps alum Elizabeth Laraki, who helped design the service in 2007, chimed in on X to say that she believes the brand new design “feels colder, much less correct and fewer human.”
However hear me out: I really like the brand new colours. I believe they’re an indication that Google is lastly conscious that its beloved mapping app, which modified the navigation world nearly 20 years in the past, has become an eyesore.
The uproar started just a few weeks in the past when Google began rolling out its new colour schemes for Google Maps to its iOS and Android apps. The up to date palette turns main roads from yellow to darkish grey, minor roads from yellow or white to gentle grey, our bodies of water from blue to turquoise, and grassy and forested areas reminiscent of parks from a muted inexperienced to a brighter pastel inexperienced.
I first observed the colour modifications again in September when the corporate started rolling them out to desktop customers as a take a look at. Sure, the primary 10 minutes of seeing the brand new colours on the desktop was just a little jarring, however I rapidly fell in love with them. Then I couldn’t look forward to the rollout to hit the corporate’s smartphone apps.
Certain, possibly I took to the brand new colour scheme as a result of I’m used to utilizing Apple Maps as effectively; the brand new colours in Google Maps make the app look—rather a lot—like Apple Maps. And that’s a superb factor as a result of Apple Maps has at all times been simpler to learn, largely due to its colour scheme.
Relating to highways and streets on Google Maps, the brand new Apple Maps-inspired grays make extra sense than the yellow of previous. Not solely is asphalt normally darkish grey, however none of us lives within the land of Oz. And once you zoom in on a street, its identify seems in white textual content with a black define. Towards the grey backdrop of the street, avenue names are a lot simpler to learn.
As for the turquoise waters and areas of pastel greenery, sure, the brighter colours threw me at first. Nevertheless, I rapidly got here to know Google’s doubtless reasoning for making the colours brighter. The brand new grey roads are extra seen towards these hues, making them a lot simpler to comply with.
And whereas Laraki’s publish has obtained plenty of consideration within the tech press, it’s essential to notice that she does admit that the brand new colours make “main roads, site visitors, and trails stand out extra now.” That’s at all times a superb factor in a mapping app.
Nonetheless, I agree with the primary level she made too: Google Maps ought to have modified up its UI and simplified the interface. Solely after that ought to it have anxious about altering colours. Over the summer time, I wrote (twice) about how Google Maps has develop into an eyesore. One of many essential causes is that the consumer interface is cluttered with components that obscure the primary map—11 of them, as Laraki factors out.
However I believe the modifications to the app’s colours are an indication that Google is aware of its Maps UI has spiraled uncontrolled.
Earlier than the redesign of Apple Maps a number of years in the past, Google actually didn’t have to fret about this UI sprawl, as a result of what else had been folks going to make use of? However now that Apple Maps is gaining customers—not only for its improved navigation skills but additionally for its easy, stunning consumer interface—Google Maps has more and more severe competitors for the primary time in its existence.
Its colour modifications are an acknowledgment of that. Right here’s hoping they’re simply the beginning of extra Google Maps modifications to return.
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