Thomas Davie wrote:
>
I believe that the side-scrolling banner at http://openstreetmap.de
does it quite well.
I disagree – it's poor UI – it takes more clicks for a user to get to
what they care about – the map.
The banner is there to let the user discover in what ways OSM can be
useful, and I think that it is designed well for that purpose.
As soon as the user the user finds an OSM-based app he likes, he should
install it on his phone. As soon as he finds an web-based routing
service he likes, he should bookmark it. And so on.
The user is *not* expected to go through openstreetmap.de every time he
wants to use OSM-based products.
Instead, we should simply have something
similar to what google maps had at the top of the map – a series of
buttons that let you select the style you want to view it in.
And how will this let the user find out that there is an iPhone app for
planning outdoor running tracks based on OSM? That they can turn their
Android tablets into car navigation systems powered by OSM? That there
is an educational 3D globe for their desktop? That there is an entire
map portal dedicated to wheelchair accessibility?
We should actively advertise the many third-party products made from
OSM, many of which go far beyond putting a map into your browser. We
should work hard on the database that makes them all possible. But we
don't have to build and offer these products ourselves.
Tobias
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