Today we announced several advanced features of Routeserver, Urban Mapping’s multi-modal routing engine (supports rail, walk, bus, bike, ferry). One of the features we’ve been working on plays into cognitive psychology, something we’ve researched for other products. Urban Mapping doesn’t profess to be a domain expert, but by applying existing research to our field of work, we are able to come up innovative products and features from time to time.

The executive summary of the latest goes something like this: perception of time does not follow ‘actual’ time; in computing, the (technical) cost of completing a journey (by automobile, walking, transit, etc…) is a function of the number of transfer points/nodes, modes of travel, travel time/schedule and route-segment attributes (average speed, express v local, elevator v stair, etc…). The psychology of waiting can be easily understood. An oft-cited (and possible urban myth) puts it well in an article from the esteemed Harvard Business School:

What do you do when you’re waiting for a slow elevator?

A number of years ago, a company that had just built a major building realized their elevators were intolerably slow. What to do? It was too expensive to reengineer the elevators. After thinking about the problem for a while, mirrors were installed in the lobby and elevators. It turns out that people will tolerate a much longer wait if they can see themselves in a mirror.

Today, most tall buildings have mirrors or polished metal surfaces in their lobbies and elevators.

Routeserver now does something similar with transit routing–standing and waiting for a bus/train/stop light has a longer perceived duration, despite the fact that it may actually be of shorter duration. Academic research (for example) has verified this, and common sense seconds the motion. So there you have it. Routing–have it your way!

]]> http://blog.urbanmapping.com/2009/07/14/multi-modal-routing-comes-of-age/feed/ 0 urbannapping Routeserver icon http://blog.urbanmapping.com/2008/08/14/urban-mapping-to-present-at-location-based-services-2008/ http://blog.urbanmapping.com/2008/08/14/urban-mapping-to-present-at-location-based-services-2008/#comments Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:27:17 +0000 Ian http://urbanmapping.com/blog/?p=483 Continue reading →]]> UMI’s own Ian White will be crossing the pond to Berlin, October 27-30, for IIR’s LBS conference in Germany. Ian will participate on a panel discussion, Can You Find The Way? Where Next For Mapping?” We aren’t sure if IIR is going for “where” or “what,” but that’s what makes panel sessions interesting.

Urban Mapping has been doing a great deal of work behind the scenes, and we’re thrilled with some upcoming announcements about our mass transit initiative.

[Update: Umibot says "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin!']

The idea of maps & directions are to get from one point to another point. They are meant to be didactic and support wayfinding activities. That much is clear. It then follows that many users would print maps/directions and take them on the trip–other options may include a ‘send to phone’ feature, mobile browsing for directions, use of a GPS device or transcribing/summarizing directions by hand.

If a user prints a map and uses it for wayfinding, it becomes an invaluable artifact during the course of that journey–it may be referenced multiple times and the ‘eyeball quality’ is undoubtedly high (who has heard of a casual direction-follower?). So this begs the question…why are printed map/direction pages missing the obvious–highly-targeted and relevant advertising? A review of print-ready directions from Google, Yahoo!, Live Local, MapQuest, Ask and MSN reveal some interesting things.

This summary table highlights some key questions that may be obvious, but warrant consideration:

• Can multi-page directions be avoided? Should they be minimized?

• Do consumers need vast flexibility in ‘configuring a map for printing?’

Most importantly, does advertising make sense on a printed map? This is valuable real estate that currently looks like a greenfield site.

NOTE: Images below have been cropped and resized to fit this blog, so page lengths may not make sense, but they are–print them yourself to see!

Google A

Google B

Live Local

Yahoo! A

Yahoo! B

Yahoo! C

Ask

MapQuest

MSN Streets & Directions