Case Study: Google Earth for Mac

Case Studies November 19, 2007

GoogleEarth is actually a very usable application. It can perform a variety of "tricks" and it's been very successful among users. Some things, however, don't match up with other Mac applications. Additionally, all the advanced functionality can be confusing.

» What Does It Do?
Lets users view aerial photos of the world
Draw on, measure, email and print areas
Create tours consisting of several locations
View all kinds of layers (i.e. 3D buildings, roads)



» What Are The "Cool" Features?
Everything except for drawing functions

So what's wrong?

MAKING IT A MAC
A lot of the interface is not Mac-specific. Google has created its own icons and button styles and it doesn't match up entirely with the rest of the Mac interface. Luckily, it has a cohesive and understandable menu bar. It's simple, intuitive and it matches up with other Mac applications. Therefore, we're primarily concerned with redesigning the program navigation and viewing options.

VISIBILITY
A lot of the program's functionality is lost because the tools in the left sidebar are squished and do not have enough space. Because you're left to explore for yourself, you may not come across the features that actually interest you. We can fix this by spacing things out more.

Part One: Making it "Mac"

When we say "making it Mac," we mean integrating it with the Mac OS X interface by using standard interface elements. Google Earth has created its own icons which could easily be "mac-ified." The point of doing this is to build familiarity with the users so that they feel more comfortable using the application in the Mac environment.

We first mimic Mail by surrounding Google's icons with glossy buttons and spacing them out more. We also provide each icon with a text description so users can see the button's functionality.



The ruler functionality can be implemented through a menu bar command and/or keyboard shortcut (such as Command+R) while the "View in Google Maps" icon can also be placed in the menu bar under "File".

Next, let's mimic the Mail and iTunes applications since the Google Earth interface is already very similar. If we create other spaces, like perhaps a side and bottom bar, not only does this separation allow for both viewing and searching options to have more room, but visually the user is a lot more aware of the difference in functionality.

Finally, let's copy nearly every Mac application by putting a search bar in the top right of the top bar. After all, this IS primarily a search-based application, so it makes sense to place the search bar in the same location as every other application. Again, this builds user familiarity.

Before we continue with adding mac-like interfaces, we need to analyze the functionality that's squished together in the left sidebar.

Part Two: Visibility

Google Earth can do a lot of stuff. If we break up the functionality into different spaces, we have a better chance of understanding all its features and better ability to make use of them. We'll start by identifying the different pieces and what we'll need:

VIEWING OPTIONS
The layers - or viewing options - allow the user to select what they want to see when they peruse the earth. Several of these are grouped under a parent so there may be a series of clicking arrows before finding the right layer.
Of the three big features, viewing options is probably the least clicked. It's more of a "settings" panel. As a user, you decide what layers you want to be viewing and then you're off to explore. Therefore, this doesn't need as much prominence and could be tucked away in a sidebar. We can showProj and hide this at will, allowing it to be out of sight for the majority of your searching and not in your way.



SEARCHING
We've addressed basic searching by placing the search bar in the top bar. However there are other search capabilities that we want to allow (such as searching for local businesses and directions). We also want to be able to keep a list of our previous searches for reference later.
But wait...Google is THE search king. There's no reason why our newly-created search form in the top bar can't be a smart search. That is, it can detect if what was typed was a location or a business and search appropriately. For example, if you type "11 Farm Meadow Road, Newtown CT" it knows that this is an address and can zoom to that location. Now in this context, if you type "pizza" it knows the user is looking for pizza restaurants in the area and it can mark them similar to Google Maps on the iPhone.

DIRECTIONS
You can get directions from any one place to another, just like Google Maps. Only in this case, you can zoom from point to point along the way, which can be much more useful.
Using Smart Search allows us to get rid of the search panel entirely. We can allow for directions by mimicking the Google Maps iPhone interface again. That is, you search for a destination first and then you can click on it to select "Get directions to" or "Get directions from." This functionality is already provided by the current interface so having it twice is redundant.



TOURS
One piece of functionality that may be overlooked is tours. This allows users to set up a tour - or list/group/playlist - of destinations and then "go sightseeing." Pressing play will make the application zoom from place to place as if you were traveling the world. What's not intuitive is how you create a tour and add destinations.
Lucky for us, we've gotten rid of both the search and viewing options panel on the left, so we are free to expand tours and search results to take up the entire left side. Everytime a user conducts a search, we store the result in a list. Similar to the iTunes application, dragging an item from a list to a "tour" will add it to the playlist.



In this sense, your "recent searches" becomes your iTunes songlist. Your "tour" or "groups" becomes your iTunes playlists. Users can add tours like they would playlists and continually drag searched locations into a tour folder. Then, after selecting a tour, the user could go sightseeing!

Part Three: Putting it All Together

Google Earth is a perfect example of an application with great functionality and a fairly decent user interface. Some minor tweaks to make it "Mac" allow for more visibility of functions, which allows for a more intuitive interface. Adding Mac interface elements integrates the application with other Mac applications and spaces out the features more so things are more easily recognized and usable.



Key points to make:

SPACING
Breaking up functionality into different spaces visually separates functionality, which means the user can understand the program's features better.

INTEGRATION
Small adjustments like making glossy buttons and standard window layouts make the program more integrated with other Mac applications and thus more intuitive from the getgo.

VISIBILITY
Having too much functionality crammed into a small space is confusing and frustrating. Users don't want to constantly have to resize spaces and scroll. Don't hide functionality or else you run the risk of users not finding it. Ensure all your features are visible.

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