Microsoft and Microsoft Research released a Map App last week which I didn’t have time to play with but its great. It allows users to change the UI of Bing Maps to a much simpler one, that appears to be hand drawn. Now at first site this could appear to just be a gimmick however I can see a real use in that the new, sketch map only shows a few small streets around the destination and how those small roads connect up with the much larger roads. The destination is important for this use of Bing Maps and if you’ve never been there before you aren’t likely to want to know the small roads around the whole town you are looking at, just the ones that matter.
There are 4 types of alternative look for the map:
- Sketchy Style
Very much what you would expect, looks just like a map sketched out on a napkin or back of an envelope - European Style
This style looks like the Bing Maps UI but as I said above a lot of the streets that won’t aid someone in getting to the destination have been removed - American Style
Appears to be a cross with the traditional look of Bing Maps and the sketch view - Treasure Map Style
Like Sketchy Style but with the “paper” it has been drawn on looking ages and folded
To create the map only takes three steps, the first is entering the address of the destination, the second is selecting how large an area the map should show and finally a name for the map. Then the computation starts and this takes some time and then finally you can see the map and easily switch between the different styles. It is also possible to save the map to your computer as a JPEG or PDF and easily print it or share the map, either by sending a link to people or by embedding it in a webpage as an image.
I think that this is a great Map App and should allow people to create maps that are much more obvious to them about which roads they need to take by removing a load of unless information. I just think it a shame that the Map App is currently only covers destinations in the US, Canada and Mexico.
And here’s the pirate style.
