So tell me how am I supposed to find a route between x and y from my phone without being on x or y first?
It is doable, but how is it supposed to be done?
(For context: IIRC there used to be a shortcut to navigation for that feature. And yes I think ux designers mindlessly copying each others or Apple are at least partially to blame.(
Bottom right blue circle with icon of a road sign - right turn <↱>. It is quite useful button, it can show you also time tables for public transport near you. But I discovered it by accident so it is not that evident as most icons.
But usually if I want to search for directions not to or from current location I just search for destination and later just change current location to different thing.
What is missing for me is the ability to select time of arrival/departure for car navigation. It is useful to see how traffic is predicted to look like in advance. But you can get something a bit like this (with just enough advance) by creating event in calendar and using Google Now. It will notify you when you must go with taking traffic in consideration.
Personally I think is flow is better than directly entering start and end for two reasons:
- The common case (go from where I am to somewhere else) is faster.
- I don't have to think about how to enter "my location", which isn't obvious (over the years I've seen - typing "my location", searching with the start box empty, pressing a special button for the purpose, and others).
Update: As lake99 and hawski pointed out it still is there. Just use the blue-sign-with-white-arrow-up-and-to-the-right (directions) and there the nice one is.
It is doable, but how is it supposed to be done?
(For context: IIRC there used to be a shortcut to navigation for that feature. And yes I think ux designers mindlessly copying each others or Apple are at least partially to blame.(