In this session, we wanted to address some common usability problems that many maps developers run into and to suggest possible solutions that could correct the behaviour. We hoped developers would utilize and build upon these suggestions as they encounter problems in their own projects.

Here is an overview of what was discussed in the talk:

• Why is usability important and why you should care.
• What are the differences between mobile and desktop and how do they relate to map applications.
• Techniques for changing the way data is represented on the map and how can change the experience.
• Ideas for improving user interaction with the map.
• Techniques for storing geospatial data.
• Why incorporating sharing into your application improves usage and user happiness.
• How changing the appearance of the map can dramatically change the user's understanding and interpretation of the data.

Justin O’Beirne joined us onstage to talk about map styling and how even the most subtle changes to the map can drastically change the user's experience. Below is an example of what can be achieved by using styled maps. The two maps are at the same location and have the same data points but the map on the left has had a custom style applied.

By removing the map labels and decreasing the saturation and lightness we are able to emphasise the importance of the data, make it more visually appealing and build a application that is truly our own. If you would like to play more with map styling check out the styled map wizard.

So watch the video, check out the slides and make your map application user experience rock!

We publish a comprehensive changelog of all updates made to the API. If you’d like to be notified when a new version is released and changelog updated, sign up to the V3 notify mailing list.

Here are some highlights of the Maps API for 2010:

• FusionTablesLayer: display and query geodata stored in Fusion Tables. Many thousands of markers can be rendered this way.
• Styled Maps: customize the visual display of your map, including changing the color scheme, and controlling the visibility of features and labels.
• Elevation: access elevation data, including depths of the ocean floor.
• Draggable Directions: users can now personalize routes provided by the Directions API.
• Marker Animations: markers can be dropped onto the map and bounced on demand as well as the old favorites like raise when dragged, and bounce when dropped. These animations can be controlled via the Animation class.
• StreetView and Custom StreetView: display panoramic 360° views from many roads around the world. Custom StreetView can be linked to Google-provided StreetView panoramas (e.g. to show interiors of buildings).
• Custom Map Types: display your own map imagery or not.
• Rectangles and Circles: decorate regions on the map.
• Traffic and Bicycling Layers: display real-time traffic information and bicycle routes (where supported).
• KML and GeoRSS Layers: render on-demand layers, providing scalable rendering of KML and GeoRSS.
• Route Optimization: find the best route to cover a given set of stops, for example when planning a delivery.
• Bada and BlackBerry 6 support: mobile device support now encompasses Bada and Blackberry 6 devices such as the Samsung Wave and Blackberry Torch.
• StreetViewService: programmatically determine the availability of Street View data.
• MaxZoomService: find the highest zoom level for satellite imagery at a particular location.

There are also a few new utility libraries for the V3 API:

• MarkerClusterer V3 allows visual clustering of many markers. The latest version has improved performance and clustering accuracy.
• InfoBubble provides a customizable CSS3 tabbed info window.
• RichMarker allows you to put arbitrary HTML on a map and interact with it as if it were a marker.
• RouteBoxer generates a set of LatLngBounds that are guaranteed to cover every point within a specified distance of a path.

Also check out our Maps API articles, which cover topics that suit the accomplished Maps JavaScript API developer. We’ve added a few articles recently:

• Too Many Markers
• Election Ratings and Spatial Data with Fusion Tables
• Fun with MVC Objects
• Geocoding Strategies

Finally, we’d like to thank all the developers who use our API, post on the forums and file bug reports and feature requests. We’re excited for what lies ahead in 2011 and as always we are enthusiastic about enabling developers to deliver great mapping solutions.

Posted by Luke Mahe and Chris Broadfoot, Google Maps API team