[MarkJenner]

Hello boys and girls,

Al ran a fantastic competition the other week to get your hands on a Dribble invite. I'd like to carry on the tradition with a little competition of my own.

What do you need to do? Design a new interface for Google Maps. To be clear, i'm not asking for a working interface, purely a JPG of how you envisage an updated version would look considering current trends. Baring in mind that Dribbble only allows a 400x300 preview, you will be hard pressed to get an entire screen into that space. So, design it full size and include a 400x300 "cut" of your most precious element, so you will have 2 images. One full size, and one 400x300 cut out. I say this size because if you decide to use it as your debut shot, these are the dimensions you'll need to provide it in.

I'll give you a week to complete it. Next Wednesday by 6pm all entries will be in and I will pick the winner soon afterwards.

Any questions, drop me a comment below.

Looking forward to seeing what you guys can come up with! Best of luck!

[MikeChipshop]

Argh and i'm supposed to be busy this week

[rubots]

Sounds good Mark.

[MarkJenner]

I know you guys are busy, but it would be great to see some entries from you!

[MikeChipshop]

I'll do my best!
To be honest i'm looking at GMaps now figuring out what i could do. It's pretty solid as it is. damn.

[ayoungh]

This is a hard one but I have a few ideas and will defo give it a go Great comp

[kingy da killa]

wehey another comp

this is a tricky one though !

[MarkJenner]

Agreed it is quite tricky. But you should be able to create some stunning elements for the map itself (place markers, rotate map, zoom in/out etc), then it's just a case of making the navigational links pretty

I've toyed with creating a mock-up myself, and I would definitely ditch the white. I know it's Google's colour, but a little variation wouldn't do any harm!

[ZaLiTH]

MarkJenner, on 31 August 2011 - 03:43 PM, said:

What do you need to do? Design a new interface for Google Maps.

Well, not that I'm really too interested in getting myself a Dribbble account, but I think I'll take part in this one too. There have always been a few things about Maps that I would do differently.

[MarkJenner]

Good man! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[rubots]

Hang on, are we redesigning the actual maps UI or are we doing the site as well.

[MarkJenner]

The maps UI - By navigation I mean the Satellite & Traffic links in the top right of the map.

How you display the map is entirely up to you. You could use the top-down world map, or the street view. If you really wanted to, you could rework the map entirely. If this was a project brief, the client would be saying:

Does that make sense? :s

EDIT: The bit about a client made it even more confusing!

This post has been edited by MarkJenner: 01 September 2011 - 03:05 PM

[ZaLiTH]

MarkJenner, on 01 September 2011 - 02:50 PM, said:

"I want Google Maps on my website, but I don't want it to look like Google Maps does... put your own spin on it."

Does that make sense? :s

So... Is this essentially designing a custom interface for a map 'widget' like this? Or would it be the full sized Google Maps page?

Edit: Just following suite with the previous comment edit.

This post has been edited by ZaLiTH: 01 September 2011 - 03:27 PM

[MarkJenner]

Full sized Google Maps page.

[ZaLiTH]

Awesome.. That's what I originally thought. And, to be honest, what I was hoping for...

[MarkJenner]

2 days to go, and no entries yet?

[MikeChipshop]

Sorry man, been hell busy. Am going to try and have a look at it this evening though

[ZaLiTH]

MarkJenner, on 05 September 2011 - 08:43 AM, said:

2 days to go, and no entries yet?

That means we still got 2 days to finish polishing it... I've got one coming, I'll probably send it to you either tonight or tomorrow.

[ayoungh]

I been super busy too, You may need to extend the date :s

[MikeChipshop]

ayoungh, on 05 September 2011 - 04:28 PM, said:

I been super busy too, You may need to extend the date :s

I'll ditto that
Got caught up in the final surge of a big project and doubt i'll be able to get an entry in before the weekend

[ayoungh]

Ok, I did a quick one. Not exactly what I had in mind but similar Enjoy

 Map-ui.jpg (355.91K)
Number of downloads: 76

This is the full screenshot.

 Snap.jpg (57.03K)
Number of downloads: 71

This is the snapshot.

General logic behind it is that it is based on Google. The middle plus icon is the menu, this is draggable to anywhere in the UI, To zoom in, click the plus, Right click the plus to zoom out. Each colour on the icon opens a menu e.g. search, map type etc

ENJOY

[neilp]

Now having a go....shouldn't be long....hmmmmmm?

[MarkJenner]

For the guys who've already submitted a design, would you mind if we extended the competition until Monday morning?

I'm more than happy to extent the deadline if those who have already submitted don't mind. Gives others more time to put something together, and you guys to tweak anything you feel may need tweaking.

[ZaLiTH]

I like that idea.. Maybe I'll find some time to finish the sidebars properly then.

[ayoungh]

I don't mind

[MarkJenner]

Sorry guys, it's just been brought to my attention that I haven't confirmed the extention! Apologies. The comp is now open until Monday evening, with the winner being chosen Tuesday morning.

So you've still got time to polish your designs (or in some cases, start them ) !

[Ste Hughes]

Epic

Not had time yet

Shall get one done tomorrow

[MikeChipshop]

Absolutely racking my brains on this but having one of those days were nothing works out right!

[rubots]

Is it me or has Google redesigned the maps UI over the last few days?

[superkaty]

rubots, on 10 September 2011 - 02:52 PM, said:

Is it me or has Google redesigned the maps UI over the last few days?

Well, you can't blame them, there is a dribbble invite up for grabs!

[ayoungh]

superkaty, on 10 September 2011 - 03:15 PM, said:

Well, you can't blame them, there is a dribbble invite up for grabs!

LOL

[Sazzad]

Good thing I caught this one in time this time. This is definitely a tough one consider Google already has one of the most reliable and easy style of viewing the map. Where are you rainy day that gives me my creative ideas.

Not sure if I grasped the concept correctly but here's my entry.

This is the landing page:


This is the active search page:


This page I added a simple button on the bottom to bring up the search bar that you see on the landing page.

My view is similar to that of Google but I would like if these minor changes were made by Google. I find the sidebar and the top search bar to be in the way.

This post has been edited by Sazzad: 11 September 2011 - 01:20 AM

[Merkury]

My two cents. Hope you like it

Full design:


400x300:

(.png for better quality)


Full design JPG
400x300 JPG

[ZaLiTH]

Well, unfortunately my PC at home somehow got infected with a virus, so I'm keeping it offline and not using any flash drives or external drives for the moment.. I didn't really get a chance to finish what I started, but here is the latest I have from before the virus issue.

Anyway, here is my very rough concept at a "Minimal Google Maps" interface:

Full View:
 ZaLiTH-full.jpg (459.73K)
Number of downloads: 58

400x300 Preview:
 ZaLiTH-preview.jpg (146.21K)
Number of downloads: 55

Basic Usage Ideas
The search panel (left) only show information relative to the current session. So if a search was done for an address, only the search results would show up first. Clicking the 'more' button would then expand the panel to allow the user to fine-tune the search results.

The map controls panel (right) will hold all map-specific controls, the zoom and scale bars will always be visible, then extra options such as map type (street/satellite) and street-view will be hidden until needed (i.e.: map zooms in far enough, or user clicks the 'more' button).

The map location pop-up can have links specific to that location for directions, photos, landmarks and 'email this location'. I honestly couldn't decide what else to include there, so the 'more' option was just to leave room for more later... So, that could probably be removed after all.

Resources
All resources except the Google logo are either drawn myself or from these two free packs: Icons are from the Glyphish pack, and the circle button bases and arrows are from PremiumPixels.

[pandadoodle]

Does this close today now? If so ill wait till #3...

[neilp]

Here is my entry, good luck all

Attached File(s)

•  googlemaps_ui.jpg (26.19K)
  Number of downloads: 62

[MikeChipshop]

I'm not going to get an entry done in time

It's my birthday today and the missus has banned me from doing any work and relegated me to the pub... Stoked

Good luck everyone.

[MarkJenner]

Quote

relegated me to the pub

Mike, your missus should get the invite purely for this! lol

Happy birthday dude.

Some good entries so far!

[seedism]

Interesting competition, never did any design like this before.
started late last night, really tired so not the cleanest finish as hoped for.

Not easy, but I had a good laugh.

First is a 400x300 thumbnail-ish image

 400x300.jpg (136.39K)
Number of downloads: 70

full sized image

 GoogleUI.jpg (537.48K)
Number of downloads: 99

In use.

 google maps.jpg (477.63K)
Number of downloads: 95

This post has been edited by seedism: 12 September 2011 - 03:00 PM

[Sazzad]

Excellent entry seedism. For some reason I feel like I'm playing Starcraft.