Google Map symbols headache for creator

KEVIN STENT/Sunday Star-Times

DON'T HASSLE: Patrick Hoffman, User Experience Designer for Google Maps.

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Chances are you have seen many of Patrick Hoffman's "babies".

As user experience designer for Google Maps his job is to make the popular mapping application easy to use, and this includes designing the icons he affectionately calls his babies that help point users to hospitals, eateries, hotels and other places of interest.

Google Maps visitors probably don't think twice about the little pictures that dot its maps, but an icon's creation can be a fraught process, he says. "Some of the best landmarks are places of worship because they tend to have big steeples for example and are easily recognisable. My challenge was to create one icon for a place of worship, everyone said just use a cross, but of course you can't use a cross because then you'll alienate synagogues and mosques."

He opted for an icon that drew on common architectural features of religious houses but that was criticised for being too close to certain religions. Now, where it can, Google uses different symbols to indicate different places of worship. Another challenge has been trying to ensure his icon for stadiums is not mistaken for a dog bowl or bed pan, and he is now devising a new symbol for hospitals after the international aid agency Red Cross informed Google its use of a red cross was in breach of the Geneva Convention.

"We'll stick with some sort of variation of a cross – one that doesn't breach the convention."

In Australia businesses have begun placing their icons on Google Maps.

"At the beginning of that project I was really reluctant – I thought it would mean a proliferation of brands. But we're exposing those brands when it's most important, when you're looking to navigate your way through a city ... and you can say, `Oh that restaurant is across the road from Dick Smith'."

Google Maps users can expect more features to help them get around without a car, he says.

"It'd be great to build some bicycle maps for Wellington."

Mr Hoffman was in Wellington last week speaking at the Technical Communicators Association conference.

- © Fairfax NZ News