I’ve been doing a lot of content integration in the past couple years and I’ve noticed that almost every one of our clients loves to type out lengthy pages to give people directions to their location.
They usually look something like this:
If you’re coming from the NORTH (you’re lucky if they bold it)
Take I-89 S to M-103 W via exit 29
blah blah blah
If you’re driving from the WEST (does anyone really always know if they are WEST or NORTH or whatever?)
Take M-103 E to exit 49
Turn left on Main Dr.
so on and so forth
I don’t know why it’s popular for people to type out directions like this. Google maps has been around for quite some time, and Mapquest has definitely had its tenure on the web.
Why is it still such a big deal for people to type out directions to their location? It’s highly unusable, takes too long to read and comprehend, and is prone to typos and mistakes. A simple link to google maps of your address will work much better for everyone. From there, your users can type in their address and get an exact route from their location. They don’t need to stop and figure out “Ok, wait. Am I coming from the NORTH, or EAST? Or Northeast? Or northwest? Which directions should I jot down?” They can just put in their address and get turn-by-turn directions.
Let your users get a route from Google or Mapquest, and stop wasting your time along with theirs.
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