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A comment on 'Flat design'-inspired Google Maps using the API. Parent comment

Re:'Flat design'-inspired Google Maps using the API by mtgx on Sunday April 28, 2013 @10:52AM (#5621401)
Yes, I have to wonder if this was done as sarcasm, too. It makes all those comments that flat design doesn't convey enough information, and makes everything indistinguishable, so true. It makes it very hard to understand what I'm seeing.

I think there should be a new term being coined, such as "flat design extremism", and it should be used as an example of how not to do things. Surely not everything perfectly flat is a good thing?

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Re:'Flat design'-inspired Google Maps using the API by mkoble11 on Sunday April 28, 2013 @11:09AM (#5621472)
It makes all those comments that flat design doesn't convey enough information, and makes everything indistinguishable, so true. It makes it very hard to understand what I'm seeing.

I took screenshot of same location with the original map and put it next to a screenshot of the "flat" map. http://imgur.com/TdFqpmw

Honestly, aside from some of the missing overlays & text on the "flat" side - I can't see too much of a difference between the two....

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Re:'Flat design'-inspired Google Maps using the API by afandian on Sunday April 28, 2013 @12:27PM (#5621749)
I think it's a really interesting comparison. (I think we can ignore the loss of POI as being irrelevant in this case).

The lack of a stroke around the shapes make it difficult to tell the edges of the roads (try counting the number of white roads between bounding yellow roads). Where roads get tangled it's hard to know what's going on.

I personally find the colour palate a bit juvenile and less trustworthy. That might be because I've got used to the more demure extant colours. But I've noticed a trend with 'flat' colour palates being differentiated primarily by hue rather than, for example, brightness. I don't think that's natural for the human eye (I have no data to back that up).

And yes, Google maps is already part of the way to 'flat'. But it's kept the level of detail required to actually be useful. I'm aware that the LHS was a quick hack vs Google having spent a certain amount of time planning their layout.

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