Sunset UX — a short reflection on being rerouted by Google Maps
4 mins read — By Frederik Højfeldt Nielsen, August 2020
We were in the car driving the highway, driving home from the countryside back to Copenhagen. Still, some 100 km to go. Everything went pretty smoothly.
Without notice, Google Maps led us off the highway.
I was wondering why Maps did that. Maps had never done so at this location – that far away from the city. I mean, even though I use Maps to guide me home, I still bring my sense of direction. And I felt guidance was off.
Anyways. We somehow trusted Maps and the tech. It did its thing, no? And so we went off the highway. Although a bit uncertain of why.
35mm photo
From speeding the normal to crusing the unusual.
Cruising the unusual
Suddenly – despite Maps’ guidance – we had windows down, fresh air coming in, evening sun setting in the back. Suddenly we were driving the scenic route. Suddenly we went from speeding the normal to cruising the unusual. Quite nice actually – it felt good. But this couldn’t be Maps’ intent?
As we continued, I figured that the four cars in front and the one behind us were going the exact same direction as we went. It seemed odd: normally when cars exit the highway we would quickly part in different directions.
But now we were like an inter-connected convoy of cars going the exact same way through the countryside. T-turn after t-turn. Through hamlets and villages. Deep green forests and fields.
I could foresee where they were going, shouting ‘yep, let’s turn right, friends’! No doubt.
After turning right, I looked to the left and I saw the highway from a far distance. The highway was standing still – a total traffic jam.
Google Maps Jamming
Sometimes detouring is faster and most importantly – more joyful.
A "unique" selling point
Because of visual proof out the car window and because we have learned that "saving time" is often our digital products' unique selling point, we assumed that Google Maps also wanted us to save some time.
My co-driver pulled down Google Maps to check if we could jump back in on the highway, and we were right about our assumptions: Jumping back in on the highway too early would add minutes to our trip, where this reroute would bring us faster to our destination.
In other words, Google Maps is a user experience sharp focused on getting us faster and more efficient from A to Z with real-time traffic updates. Optimized down to every interactive pixel, wording, and byte of code.
I can't speak for the rest of the convoy – sometimes you off course just want to get your ass to the destination ASAP – but I really enjoyed getting off the highway for once.
Adventure time
I might be to the romantic side, but in this case, I felt we caught Google Maps in an opportunity to serve people more of these unexpected experiences. Something that is framed and experienced differently than efficiently saving time.
Right there in the car, I didn't care about how much time I saved, I cared about the moment. You know, cruising the unusual.
As we approached the ramp to the highway again, it felt like suddenly everyone got reminded about their annoying to-dos, calendars, and jobs to be done. Better get back to saving some time so we can save some time.
I started to question Google Maps: Is serving us – 'users' – efficiency always the top priority of our needs when we are going somewhere?
– What if Google Maps spoke more to the adventure of rerouting?
– What if Google Maps deliberately changed to a more playful tone of voice?
– What if saving time became second priority benchmark?
– What if Google Maps had a spend-some-time-mode?
Slow down
I believe that slowing down life has become deprioritized in a fast-paced tech industry. What if constantly saving time is an expressed mis-want – something we think we need because we are so exposed to earning it all the time. What if we on a larger scale don't benefit from that.
– What if Google Maps asked us to slow down?
What would happen to the user experience? I think it sounds exciting and healthy. It's not that I want to spend time with the product, but I wanted to spend time in the sunset.