Thankyou, I thought it was just me cursing about maps. Not just google maps but the "native" Swedish counterparts are also loosing or hiding useful tools because design. Design is more than just pretty colours...
I don't think anyone would disagree with that? But hiding useful tools isn't necessarily bad design either - there's usually a tradeoff to be made to help the majority of users perform a common interaction easier vs. surfacing a more infrequently used tool more prominently.
The problem with maps is that they appear to be making it up as they go along. There are years of user interface research but because we're moving to touch interfaces it feels like designers are throwing all that research away.
Maps now is a confusing hard to use program. Functionality is not hidden in one set of menus. To do something you hae to search through a few different places, and the only way to learn is to just do it, but there are few affordances so you don't even know if a thing on the screen is clickable (or whether you need to tap; hold; pinch; drag; or stretch it).
Even after using it, I still have to re-learn it every time i use it. There's no intuitivity (totally a word) at all.