tantramar: Time As Context

There is an element to mapping services which I feel is being overlooked; time. Mapping services don't seem to have figured this out yet. If I look at a paper map I can learn where things are. If I look at a digital map on a computer it can (potentially) alert me to things of interest to me in a certain area.

If I look at a map on mobile device I can see what's of interest to me in my current location, this is what all services do now. But my phone (for example) knows what day it is and what time it is, in conjunction with my current location. This is important.

Potentially, my needs at 7am on a Monday in Soho are quit different to 11pm on a Friday in Soho. This added contextual data could give a much more meaningful display of information to the user. Now clearly this might take a bit of time to adjust for each individual but the benefits such as not rising up unimportant data would be huge. Especially on screens with such small real estate to play with.

As more services become location-aware and more data becomes location tagged and social reviews (on sites such as Tipped) become the standard, filters, as we all know will become paramount, in fact the very essence of a service.

Time will be one of the most important filters we will have at our disposal. People need to start realising this before we drown in a sea of data display carnage.

Obvious but very few people seem to be taking heed.

The clock in the image is the Corpus Clock (for Matti's amusement)

Comments

You *heart* maps, don'tcha Charlie??

Anyway, Mark was right in his Tweet - great post. Nobody is really doing anything about this. Silly people.

Posted by: Rob | 16 June 2009 at 12:14

Hi Charlie. Just thought I'd let you know that I've nominated this post on a Post of the Month thing I run over on Only Dead Fish.
http://bit.ly/l1i0Y

Posted by: neilperkin | 06 July 2009 at 22:57