Placemixer: UI Experiments in Maps

For about six months starting in 2008, I worked on a concept called Placemixer, an itinerary planning web application.

The main interface would function very similarly to existing mapping applications. We wanted emphasis on airports, hotel, and restaurants. When traveling, knowing these locations are very important. A user would click on these key points to load them in the map. They can then use the markers on the map or the corresponding line items in the sidebar to add a point to the itinerary.

The itinerary has two types of locations: regular and time–sensitive. Users would set times for specific events. For example, catching a show on Broadway or going to a restaurant reservation doesn't have much flexibility in time. Regular locations would be grouped by distance to time–sensitive places. The idea is to facilitate planning and allow options. A person might notice a major landmark is close to their restaurant reservation and plan to be at that landmark beforehand. They can set a time to place importance on visiting the landmark, or leave it there to group a set of landmarks that interests them.

Gravitate is an extension of the above idea. By clicking on Gravitate for a place, the map would zoom to show all the locations closest to the selection. For the prototype, we were applying the feature only to hotels, because it made a lot of sense for people to plan their hotel options based on the proximity to the things they want to do.

Once the user was done, a printable version of the itinerary is offered to the user featuring directions, the itinerary listing, and nearby points to each item.

The screenshots were from a prototype illustrating some of the key concepts.

Looking at it now, I would make a few changes to the interface. I would move an itinerary timeline to the top for pagination and create another screen with small versions of the maps corresponding to each itinerary.

The entire concept was targeted towards traveling to places foreign to the user. The user may travel to a place and not realize the location of the closest airports, or where certain landmarks are relative to each other. They may not understand how or do not want to purchase Internet at their destination. A printed itinerary would be very handy.

I believe that technology will bring about change in how we plan trips. TripIt is a perfect example of a great application simplifying complex travel arrangements. Augmented reality and the proliferation of mobile phone access to the Internet have become more widespread in the past few years. Placemixer, in the last incarnation, was targeted towards power users who would want an interface to plan out trips. I don’t know if there’s a market for such an application. I instead believe editorially created travel guides or quick auto–planning guides combined with location aware applications is the future in travel. This satisfies two core ideas, expedient planning and adaptability.

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