30th
#RantFriday — Feature Pile-Up
New math: Sometimes one good feature plus another good feature equals two useless features.
Case in point: The Maps App on iOS.
Turn on traffic (Options>Show Traffic).
This a very useful feature that shows major roads and highways illuminated in green, yellow, or red stripes to correspond with the movement of traffic. This is a great feature.
Turn on Driving Directions (Directions tab).
This is another useful feature that shows the driving path you need to take from your Point A to Point B. It displays the driving route as a helpful semi-transparent purple line. This is a great feature.
Turn on Traffic while using Driving Directions.
User Interface Disaster. The semi-transparent driving route purple line is drawn thicker than the narrow lines used to show the traffic.The particular shade of purple used masks the red, yellow, or green traffic line such that you can tell there is traffic information—but can’t distinguish its color.
After years of constant use I still can’t make heads or tails of green-smooth-traffic-flow-line-as-filtered-by-semi-transparent-purple from the red-blocked-traffic-don’t-go-this-way-awful-traffic-flow-as-filtered-by-semi-transparent purple. (see picture).
As the picture points out, it is easy to see the traffic color on parallel roads, just not the one you’re on.
Grrr!
