[IxDA Discuss] Flickr's new Geo-mapping

[Dave (Heller) Malouf]

Hey there guys, I wrote up a short piece talking about some of the 
complexity behind the new Flickr Mapping tool. I'd be really interested 
in what people think about this type of interaction problem.

http://synapticburn.com/comments.php?id=166_0_1_0_C

I don't have any real answers off the top of my head. What is really 
scratchin' at me is the # of dimensions that are being presented in one 
focused context. it is quite interesting, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't 
work, but b/c of the level of complexity and the sheer scale of the 
numbers of objects that need to be represented and discoverable through 
these dimensions, I'm not quite sure where it should all go.

The main problem I have is in the "paging" metaphor that seems to be an 
addition to the map metaphor. It's like a layering function ala "Grays 
Anatomy", but while the contexts are connected through this sort of 
depth, there is no real depth being gained here. This layering is 
completely virtual. It is also very unclear how one set ends up on one 
page vs. another page. Lastly, why say "20+"? why not just say the final 
#. You are taking so much time to calculate things already (it is very 
unresponsive of a system), how much longer can that take to create a 
real number?

the last thing is that it does not do a good job of making geo-local 
relationships. I.e. the creation of groups based on geo-political 
borders or relevance through proximity. I.e do I need to have paging, or 
do I want to see how many images are in Europe vs. Africa vs. Asia? The 
randomness would seem to go away if these relationships could be 
extrapolated better from the images and allow to guide people to pan and 
zoom better. It would also remove the need for paging until you got a 
lot lower.

Anyway, I'm interested in what other people are thinking about this.

I do have to say that as I look at flickr's newer designs and how 
they've really stuck with AJAX instead of Flash, that they have done a 
great job of bring in desktop metaphors without looking like a desktop 
application. Google Spreadsheet does a good job of this as well.

Ok, i'm done.

-- dave

-- 
 
David (Heller) Malouf
Vice President
dave(at)ixda(dot)org
http://ixda.org/
http://synapticburn.com/

AIM: bolinhanyc // Y!: dave_ux // 
MSN: hippiefunk(at)hotmail.com // Gtalk: dave.ixd(at)gmail.com