Given my rather woeful sense of direction and inability to use a map without turning it round to face the way I think I'm going (do any men do that too?), I thought Google Maps might prove very useful. Having high expectations of such apps, I'd assumed it would provide crystal clear instructions set to "numpty user" level. Phrases like "Look out for that big house with the blue door and then turn right just a few yards later" and "No, you're going the wrong way, turn back and then go left beside the pillar box" were what I had in mind. Clearly, however, there's still a market opportunity catering for people like me....
Having downloaded Google Maps onto my android phone and my mini iPad, so I could look at the instructions manual on one while trying it out on the other, I settled down to do my homework. Despite searching high and low - or whatever the online equivalent is - I couldn't find a manual anywhere. Instead I had to resort to various Help, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials and Guides web sites, most of which seemed to be based on a US version of the app. One feature that sounded interesting was the ability to see photographs of the same location taken over the last 10 years. Well, I'm sure it would have been, if I could have found the "little stick man" that was supposed to be at the top right of the screen, ready and waiting for me. He was nowhere to be found, so this "awesome tip" was no use at all.
I had more luck with the feature that enables the map to move so that it's facing the right way (in my terms). That was definitely helpful. I duly entered my home details and found it reassuring that I could always click the microphone icon and say "Please give me directions home", and be reasonably confident of it working.
Curiously it seemed rather selective when it came to providing information on nearby restaurants. I decided to test it by asking for the locations of any in our area. There are a few within walking distance but none of them came up. Instead I was offered details of a number in Westminster and one in Sussex. If I specified an Indian restaurant, the Saqui, which is just across the Common, appeared long after some that were much farther away. Maybe it depends on algorithms that take into account marketing input and "spiders" that affect how quickly the name of an entity comes up. Anyway it was clearly not entirely reliable for that purpose, which is a pity as it's the sort of information that could be very useful if you're in a town you don't know well.
One useful piece of advice was to download maps of areas to be visited in the future, in places where internet access might be limited. I've duly downloaded ones of Cape Town and Franschhoek, and marked the places we rent as key locations. It was fun using the option of viewing photographs of them, though less amusing when I found one of our favourite restaurants appeared to be a building site. I'm hoping that's because the photo was taken some time ago, before we knew it, rather than within the last year. All being well, I'll be able to use Google Maps as a satnav when we're out there, which could save us a fair amount of time and hassle.
Having looked at all the features I could find, I decided to move on to trying it out in practice My first attempt was to navigate on foot between Wimbledon tube station and a medical centre about a mile away. Emerging from the station onto the main road, I needed to know whether to turn left or right. It wasn't at all helpful to be told to turn south west. How on earth, as the sun had already set, was I supposed to know where that was? I assumed that if I made the wrong choice, the pleasant and authoritative female voice would politely tell me so. I took a chance and turned right, and she was silent. Having plodded on for about fifty yards, it occurred to me that it would be worth testing my assumption by retracing my steps and turning left, which I did. She was still silent. This wasn't encouraging.
Peering at the map on the phone, I couldn't recognise any of the street names and had no idea which way to go. Scrolling through the route marked, it was heading away from the centre of the town towards a greener area, so going right seemed the better option. After about 200 yards I noticed a pub that was marked on the screen, which was reassuring.
The rest of the route was straightforward and as I neared my destination, I decided to give the woman another chance (this was becoming personal) by deliberately going down a side road instead of carrying along the main road. She let me continue quite a way into what became a dead end, before directing me to turn west towards the A219. Again, that wasn't very helpful as I didn't know which was west, nor the number of the road. It would have been far more user-friendly to have been told to turn back until I reached the main road and then go right.
I couldn't honestly say I felt I'd "mastered" Google Maps, so today I gave it another go. I asked Peter to choose a road within reasonable walking distance but out of my normal ambit, which I'd have to find using the app. He came up with Cardinal Avenue and I duly entered the name and waited for the directions to appear. They seemed clear enough so I set off, clutching my phone and trying not to think about the recent spate of acid attacks just to steal a mobile. (Peter pointed out that they'd hardly be interested in my old Android, but it's white and I reckon it could look like an iPhone in poor light.)
As on my previous attempt, I was told to turn south west. Since we live in a cul de sac and even I know which way is out, this wasn't a problem in practice but I do think it's a design fault, giving compass bearings rather than a simple left or right. Again I made some deliberate mistakes and was disappointed that either no correcting instructions were given, or in one case I was directed to go towards the main road whereas it would have been much quicker to walk down the side of the Common. At least I now know that the road, which I've used almost daily for over 20 years, is the A307.
Having only skimmed through the directions, I thought the final stage would be to turn right off Tudor Drive into Cardinal Avenue (passing Aragon Road, Cranmer Road and Anne Boleyn's Walk - the town planners were evidently in a historical frame of mind). As I neared a newsagent, the phone suddenly told me to turn right. But there wasn't any road on the right. I carried on until I realised I must have gone too far, so I retraced my steps and as soon as I reached the newsagent, I was told to turn left. Peering around, I spotted a murky alley overhung with brambles, with garages at the end. Surely not? Oh well, it was broad daylight so I went down it and found it jinked to the left, towards a row of back gardens. At this point the phone hit its lowest ebb, declaring "Turn left into Cardinal Avenue Turn right into Cardinal Avenue Turn left into Cardinal Avenue Turn right into Cardinal Avenue". Cardinal Avenue was nowhere in sight and the announcer was in meltdown.
My approach to anything to do with computers, which is unscientific and irritates Peter as it works more often than it should, is to try to think like one. What was upsetting the phone? Since it operates on logic, perhaps it was trying to deal with a situation where this wasn't possible. Maybe I needed to turn both left and right, one immediately after the other, and the app couldn't distinguish between the two. Looking past the brambles, I noticed there was another little jink and daylight beyond it. Bingo! There was Cardinal Avenue, accessible on foot by an alley I'd never known existed.
I thought I'd do the return route as if I were going by car rather than on foot. Looking at the map on the screen, it was obvious I should take the next right into Aragon Road, which opened into Tudor Drive. Bizarrely the phone told me to turn left into Wolsey Drive (town planners at it again), which is completely the wrong way. I gave the woman a chance by following her instructions until I'd gone past the entrance to Aragon, but she was still insisting on the Drive, so I left her to it and walked home.
All in all, I think Google Maps has some useful features and is worth having as a general guide. However it isn't 100% reliable and could be much more user-friendly. It may be fine for someone with a good sense of direction and an instinctive understanding of compass bearings (unfortunately I was taught at primary school that north is always in front of me and I've never quite managed to shake this off); but for those of us who struggle with maps, it needs to have more of an idiot's guide approach. A job opportunity, maybe?
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