I recently had to get my car certified under the National Car Test scheme (NCT). This involved driving my car to an NCT centre in an unfamiliar Dublin suburb. Fortunately, the NCT website provided a map showing me where the centre is located. Unfortunately the map looked like this:

Poor map usability

I had four fundamental issues with the map.

1. The map is not geographically accurate. Compared to a more acurrate map (below), the NCT map is more impressionistic than realistic. It interprets Dublin as Manhattan, with straight roads and clean right angles. If a map is supposed to leave an accurate picture in the mind’s eye, then this one fails the test. Perhaps the designer had recently visited London, where the Underground Map provides a classic impression of the train system, but is notoriously inaccurate when gauging distances and locations above ground.

2. The map ignores street names (for the most part). Okay, the map has some street names but ignores most of the important ones or gets them wrong. Crucially, neither the map nor the address on the map provide the name of the street where the centre is located. Not correctly anyway – the map implies that Kill Lane is a (non-existent) side-road leading to the centre, when in fact it is actually the road where the centre is located. Nor or there names for the main arterial road leading from Dublin (the N11) or the roads at the main intersection just beside the centre.

3. The map invents names. It is bad enough that the map ignores real street names, but worse that it invents a few. Deansgrange Crossroads is not an official name, rather a local term for that intersection. Foxrock is not the name of the main arterial road (as the map implies) but the name of an adjoining suburb. Real names help, false names confuse.

4. The map provides no context. A good map should provide some context within the wider geographical area. Due to the problems listed above, this map failed to do so. I couldn’t even use it to pinpoint the centre on my own Dublin City Street Guide, such was its inaccuracy.
I ended up driving to the centre with only a rough idea of where it was and inevitably got lost. Busy traffic, a bad map and trying to get directions over the phone while I drove (sorry!), all led to a stressful and frustrating experience.

To be fair, the centre itself and the customer service provided (including text-message confirmations) were models of good customer experience. All the more disappointing then that their map – crucial for nearly all their customers – was so bad.

Lessons learned from the NCT

A good map is worth a thousand words. If people regularly visit your office, then a good map can help them find it. It might not be everybody’s idea of “killer content”, but it could be one small piece in an overall positive customer experience. It all adds up.

If you do go to the trouble of putting a map on your website, make sure people can actually use it:

• Create an accurate picture of your surroundings.
• Provide names for the major streets (especially your own street)
• If applicable, provide context within the wider geographical area, such as indicators of arterial roads, motorways, transit stations, etc

It’s not that difficult. Some examples of helpful maps can be found on these sites:

Morrison Hotel

Fulham Football Club

National Disability Authority (Ireland)

Royal Albert Hall

River Cafe