Hi! I'm a designer & I want to help openstreetmap.org
ground-up redesign of openstreetmap.org
Do we need another redesign of openstreetmap.org???
Yes! An exercise in solving fundamental design problems
1. Poor information architecture
2. Poor onboarding for newbies
3. Not social enough
Goal: present a vision
Something to move iteratively towards
Credit due:
#1
openstreetmap.org needs more appropriate information architecture & content heirarchy
Guided by use cases
Because design is how it works
Things should be in place for a reason
openstreetmap.org is not bad, but there's no cohesive system
Leads to unproductive "design" debates
Where to put the map key? Marker link? Zoom controls? History tab?
This is a bad model
Wikipedia is text. wikipedia.com should be text. OpenStreetMap is a map?
Okay, what is OpenStreetMap?
Three primary functions
openstreetmap.org
is a map for navigating and placefinding
openstreetmap.org
is an application for improving the map
openstreetmap.org
is a community site for mappers
Secondary functions
openstreetmap.org
is a data resource
openstreetmap.org
is a data inspection tool
openstreetmap.org
is an organization homepage
Group related functions
Some details
Deliberate design makes things understandable and easy to use
Don't just "add features"
Think about what users want to do
#2
openstreetmap.org needs a better onboarding experience
It's not immediately clear what the project is
The signup process has usability problems
Poor form design
Lack of built-in instructions
Help link goes to separate website, no differenation between off and on site links
Good design is already good onboarding
Better first screen
One clear, primary action
Better login flow
Tooltips
Help landing page
Stay on openstreetmap.org, explain what the external resources do (wiki, Q&A, learnOSM)
#3
openstreetmap.org doesn't do enough to connect us as mappers
What's a better model?
Exposes friends & groups, show off popularity & activity
Even better model: Strava
Social network based around excercise
Designed to incentivize activity
Opens with activity summary. Socially, about bragging and status.
Follows with activity feed. Socially, about encouragement and advice.
Replace excercise with mapping
Find friends and groups
Interact with friend
The activity summary
Compare yourself with others
The unified activity feed
Replaces 'user edits' page
The beauty of building entire site around a map
The community landing page
Again, filterable by activity type
Replaces, blog, history, and notes
Filterable by user type
This is all I have right now.
TO DO:
Groups!
History as an in-depth data inspection tool
Changeset / node / way pages
Tighter editor integration
Using data - new workflow
Friendlier default base map style
Where can we start?
Three clear next actions:
Things we can do tomorrow
1. Improve registration flow
better intro modal, form styles, and new welcome page
2. Re-organize map tools
group together on the right: key, zoom controls, layer switcher, share links
3. Surface user activity
Can be "dumb" to start with: move diary entries and edits out of tiny subnav
FeedbacK? @samanbb
