Maps for mall rats
This is genius. I rarely go to malls these days. (In my hometown, there is not much to do other than go to the mall. Or work there. Which I did!) There aren’t really any malls in downtown DC, so going to one is a premeditated decision, usually a half-a-day expedition that requires packing a juice box and some almonds in my bag. But this past Saturday, I found myself en route on a windows-down car ride to Pentagon City for the adjacent indoor and outdoor malls to pick up that fall-weather staple, tights. Faced with unfamiliar territory and no visible maps, my friend Caroline was my guide as I traversed the crowded halls. I remember thinking how helpful it would be to be able to do a side-by-side comparison of the indoor and outdoor malls’ respective offerings. Et voila, from The New York Times on MindSmack’s app, FastMall:
Users see a floor plan of a shopping mall, for example, with stores indicated by name. Escalators, exits, restrooms and elevators are also marked.
FastMall has a search engine to help users find stores on its maps. Enter “Banana Republic” and the service places a pin on the map to show the store’s location. Tap the “take me there” button and the service plots a route to the destination. To find the nearest restroom, all users have to do is shake their phone.
Awesome. Now if they could just synch up a hand gesture that will lead you to the Japanese stir fry place in the food court.
This lady has got to be Canadian.
Yes! Nice! The map at the mall in San Francisco tries way too hard to be “interactive” and has one of the worst user interfaces I’ve seen — not unlike the Bart and MUNI systems there, which is extra frustrating because: hello! San Francisco! Home of the UI nerds! Where are they when we need them for something actually useful? In any case, it was absurdly hard to figure out where things were there, so there is definitely a need for this.
This post has been on my mind for a week now, and I just have to say it falls under the category of “really?” The regular kiosk maps in malls have always worked fine for me. I will say the one feature that I would appreciate in an app is to be able to look up an interior store and know where to park to be near it. There is nothing worse than taking a guess and ending up at the wrong side.