I gotta say, anyone who's ever actually used a GPS device will tell you that the interface shown at the top looks like absolute ass. That's totally unusable. Now, maybe they're showing some weird secondary mode for when you're stopped and just want to play around with it a bit. But if that's the actual map screen, jesus! Could they make the icons any smaller (and less "iconic")? Could they make it any more cluttered? You'd have to squint to even see what's going on while driving.
GPS devices need uncluttered map screens with big, bold text for instructions and upcoming street names. They need icons that actually look like what they do.
The hardware may be great, but the software is just as important. And btw, there's no reason a GPS unit needs to be 800x600. You can't read or see details smaller than about 1/2" while driving anyway, which just means all that extra density is wasted. It's like saying someone invented a 1920x1080 bank ATM. It really doesn't mean anything because of the way people are actually using those screens.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff @ Nov 15th 2007 5:46PM
I gotta say, anyone who's ever actually used a GPS device will tell you that the interface shown at the top looks like absolute ass. That's totally unusable. Now, maybe they're showing some weird secondary mode for when you're stopped and just want to play around with it a bit. But if that's the actual map screen, jesus! Could they make the icons any smaller (and less "iconic")? Could they make it any more cluttered? You'd have to squint to even see what's going on while driving.
GPS devices need uncluttered map screens with big, bold text for instructions and upcoming street names. They need icons that actually look like what they do.
The hardware may be great, but the software is just as important. And btw, there's no reason a GPS unit needs to be 800x600. You can't read or see details smaller than about 1/2" while driving anyway, which just means all that extra density is wasted. It's like saying someone invented a 1920x1080 bank ATM. It really doesn't mean anything because of the way people are actually using those screens.