Improving navigation trust in unfamiliar areas for tourists on Google Maps through personalized directions, visual clarity, and real-time updates

Case Study Scope

Problem Discovery

Misrouting that creates many challenges and sometimes dangerous!

Tourists using Google Maps often struggle with navigation, especially when trying to find key attractions or local transit options in unfamiliar cities. The app’s interface is not optimized for non-local users, leading to confusion and reliance on third-party guides.

Interview

“I missed my flight after taking a scary route to the bus station because the bus arrival time was wrong!”

We continued our research by interviewing 8 individuals who had experience using Google Maps for finding key tourist attractions and navigation during their travels. The participants' feedback sparked many data and findings, and we’ll highlight the most important insights below.

🧭Inaccurate Route Guidance

Google Maps' delayed alerts and inaccurate exit displays often cause users to miss turns, increasing the risk of accidents and route deviations. As a result, many switch to more reliable, often localized, navigation apps.

🗺Outdated & incomplete places overview

Outdated or incomplete information like incorrect hours, closures, limited images, or unreliable ratings makes users hesitant to rely on Google Maps for exploration. They often turn to social media for confirmation, reducing the app’s effectiveness and leading to missed engagement and sales for businesses.

🚌Unreliable Public Transit Info

Inaccurate or outdated public transport data like schedules, station details, or inactive lines can confuse tourists, leading to missed trips and a frustrating experience.

🚧Unsafe Navigation

Google Maps' focus on the fastest route can lead users through unsafe or inefficient paths, especially in unfamiliar areas. This lack of safety awareness affects trust particularly among solo travelers and women causing them to rely on intuition or locals instead.

🏛No indoor navigation coverage

In indoor places such as shopping malls, transportation terminals, airports, or museums, users may experience limited GPS coverage or signal disruptions, making accurate navigation challenging. As a result, they may spend additional time finding their way, rely on photos of indoor maps, or use printed maps as alternatives.

• 🧭Inaccurate Route Guidance

  Google Maps' delayed alerts and inaccurate exit displays often cause users to miss turns, increasing the risk of accidents and route deviations. As a result, many switch to more reliable, often localized, navigation apps.

• 🗺Outdated & incomplete places overview

  Outdated or incomplete information like incorrect hours, closures, limited images, or unreliable ratings makes users hesitant to rely on Google Maps for exploration. They often turn to social media for confirmation, reducing the app’s effectiveness and leading to missed engagement and sales for businesses.

• 🚌Unreliable Public Transit Info

  Inaccurate or outdated public transport data like schedules, station details, or inactive lines can confuse tourists, leading to missed trips and a frustrating experience.

• 🚧Unsafe Navigation

  Google Maps' focus on the fastest route can lead users through unsafe or inefficient paths, especially in unfamiliar areas. This lack of safety awareness affects trust particularly among solo travelers and women causing them to rely on intuition or locals instead.

• 🏛No indoor navigation coverage

  In indoor places such as shopping malls, transportation terminals, airports, or museums, users may experience limited GPS coverage or signal disruptions, making accurate navigation challenging. As a result, they may spend additional time finding their way, rely on photos of indoor maps, or use printed maps as alternatives.

5 important insights from Users’ Interviews

Challenges and Constraints

• 📌

  During desk research, we focused primarily on Google Maps’ most visible and commonly used services, as the issues we identified were related to them. Even after the interviews, we assumed the platform had only a limited set of core features. As a result, many of our initial ideas aimed to add missing functionalities, unaware that several already existed but were difficult to discover. This lack of discoverability and visibility led to some redundant ideas and ultimately required us to restart the ideation process.

• 📌

  We also encountered data limitations. Features such as public transportation details, 360-degree views, and similar services were unavailable in some regions due to local constraints and regulations, leading to an incomplete user experience. For example, one user complained about missing train schedules, though the issue was specific to their region and worked correctly elsewhere. These inconsistencies affected the accuracy of our interview data, requiring follow-ups to verify information and make smarter and more reliable decisions.

Persona profile

Staying close to our users

By analyzing user interviews, we created two key archetypes to keep our users top of mind at every step. They’ve been with us throughout the project, helping us stay focused on who we’re designing for and making sure our decisions truly match their needs and goals.

Gaps, Gains and Growth

Google Maps is a leading navigation platform among competitors, but warnings for potentially unsafe or suspicious routes represent a gap that could turn into an opportunity

We learned that the trend is moving toward increased user interaction, real-time feedback and updates, and improved transparency and clarity in presenting information about routes, places, and other services, all contributing to a smarter, more organized, and integrated travel experience.

Feature comparison of Google Maps competitors

	Apple Maps	Waze	Citymapper	KakaoMap	Maps.me	Neshan
User Reports&Real-time Feedback	Apple Maps — supported	Waze — supported	Citymapper — supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — supported
Turn-by-turn Directions&Lane Information	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — supported	Citymapper — not supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — supported
Auto Zoom-inbased onDriving Speed	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — supported	Citymapper — not supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — not supported
Route OptionsSeparately	Apple Maps — supported	Waze — supported	Citymapper — not supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — not supported
Step-free Routes &Shorter WalkingDistances	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — not supported	Citymapper — supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — supported	Neshan — not supported
Other Users Navigatingin Real-Time	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — supported	Citymapper — not supported	KakaoMap — not supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — not supported
Child-safe routing	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — not supported	Citymapper — not supported	KakaoMap — supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — not supported
Live train tracking	Apple Maps — not supported	Waze — not supported	Citymapper — supported	KakaoMap — supported	Maps.me — not supported	Neshan — not supported

• 

  Waze

  Real-time feedback

• 

  Apple Maps

  Displaying routes list with details separately

• 

  KakaoMap

  Real-time transit information

• 

  Citymapper

  Display public transport delays and multiple route options

• 

  Neshan

  Lane exit guide, Road signs & Speed control

Impact-Effort Matrix

Finding a balanced solution to make a more efficient change

During the ideation phase, we realized that most navigation apps focus solely on providing directions to a destination, without addressing essential features for tourists such as safe route options, discovering new places, or smart trip planning. As a result, we focused on designing features like a “Tourist Mode,” route safety comparisons, and smart planning based on user behavior. These ideas were implemented with an emphasis on feasibility and ease of integration into the existing Google Maps interface.

• Route Guidance
• Safety-related
• Places Overview
• Public Transit
• Indoor Coverage

Visual Design

From clues to sketches, a challenging process to understand how practical ideas are and to minimize user frustrations

While quick visual comprehension is generally beneficial, it becomes especially important during navigation due to the need for rapid response. This motivated us to look for design patterns that reduce complexity and make it easier to understand, even displaying a large amount of information. As a result, we focused on navigating Google Maps’ UI design patterns and implementing small yet impactful changes.

Success Metric

Did our features truly drive impact? Imagine we’re part of the Google team evaluating a design’s success

We will measure the following factors:

• Safety Analysis

  We will monitor the frequency of 'unsafe' reports for routes previously marked as safe. A reduction in these reports may indicate improved user trust and perceived safety during navigation.

• Exit Misses & Re-Routing Frequency

  By tracking how often users are re-routed or prompted with new directions, we will evaluate whether users will continue to miss exits, an indicator of guidance clarity.

• Incident Detection via Stop Patterns

  Sudden or prolonged stops along a route will be monitored as potential indicators of incidents. We will assess whether early warnings and improved guidance contribute to reducing these occurrences.

• User Feedback Analysis

  To evaluate routing effectiveness, we will examine post-routing feedback to determine which suggested routes users selected in cases of reported satisfaction versus dissatisfaction. When explicit feedback is unavailable, we will analyze historical route selection patterns to infer user preferences under similar conditions.

• Tourist Trip Planning Behavior

  We will also explore how tourists plan and use their trips:
  – Do they plan ahead or in real time during travel?
  – Do they share their plans with others?
  – Do they prefer wandering freely, visiting less structured locations, or following popular, frequently used paths?

Project Takeaways

Each design decision on the web can directly influence user behavior in the real world

This project helped me think critically that even the smallest design decisions can influence users’ real-life decisions, actions, and emotions, especially for tourists in unfamiliar environments.

• 1

  Social impact of design decisions

  Labeling areas as unsafe can raise ethical concerns and lead to social consequences, such as reduced foot traffic and potentially increased crime. Using more neutral terms may help prevent negative bias.

• 2

  Decisions should be left to users

  Tourists do not always prioritize early arrival; many prefer to arrive later if it ensures their safety and a positive experience. As visitors are unfamiliar with the city, negative experiences caused by navigation apps can negatively impact their overall perception of the city, reduce trust, cause stress or fear.

• 3

  Discoverability is key to engagement

  Having a wide range of features is useful, but their discoverability and visibility play a key role. When features are easy to notice, users are more likely to engage with them, which can lead to greater overall effectiveness.

• 4

  Valuing feedback builds trust

  When users see that their feedback is valued and directly influences the app’s performance, they are more likely to contribute real-time information about routes, tourist attractions, public transportation, etc. This increases tourists’ trust in the information provided and reduces the need to verify it through other apps.