I’m a sucker for design and found myself poring over the recently released Bing Maps style update. The PDF the accompanies the recent changes is a 9 page guide to what has changed and why. The team details changes such as
- Primary roadways are denoted in a more distinct color
- One way streets are more clearly marked
- Road shields are more visible
- Text labels are easier to read
- Traffic overlays are clearer and more defined
- Lots of other details to improve map readability
There are some other interesting data points in this small guide though. For example
- Bing Maps are rarely seen in isolation. Roughly four out of five people who see a Bing Map on any given day will see it with data plotted on top of it.
- Bing Maps provides 18 (or more) levels of zoom. Each level of zoom is its own unique map. Another way to think about it is Bing Maps has one map of the entire world for each level of zoom.
- Bing Maps now includes country specific road signs for 21 countries
There are a ton of other enhancements that make Bing Maps a pleasure to use – I recommended it to 15,000 people last week at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference and more than a few people commented that they were pleasantly surprised with what Bing Maps had to offer. I know, it’s a competitive environment but we’ll keep chipping away!
looks like Long Zheng noticed too.
