for map products, the information around a certain geographical location is called POI. The author of this paper will briefly talk about his understanding and views on POI in map products.

As a standard road idiot, I used to believe that "the map grows in my mouth". When I go to an unfamiliar place, I can always reach my destination by asking a few more people. Later, with the popularity of intelligent machines and the improvement of map products, people tend to go to map software to find places they want to go. After all, most people have less comprehensive information than map products.

when we use map products, we often use the function of "discovering the surrounding/nearby" besides querying the route. With this function, you can find food, scenic spots, hotels and so on near you.

for map products, the information around a certain geographical location is called POI? . This is explained in the official document of Baidu map: location data, point of information. However, there are other sayings on the internet, such as point of interest, any meaningful point on the map that is not geographical, such as shops, bars and gas stations.

in map expression, a POI can represent a building, a shop, a scenic spot and so on. Through POI search, we can find restaurants, scenic spots, toilets and so on.

the significance of poi is that you can't remember and understand the information around you accurately, whether it is a familiar or unfamiliar city. For example, we need to find a bank, and it is too much trouble to search one bank after another. Wouldn't it be convenient if we could directly show the nearest banks in turn on the map?

briefly talk about your own understanding and views on POI in map products.

I. POI classification of map products

POI classification of map products has different perceived perspectives for developers and users.

1. POI classification from the perspective of mobile users

For most map products, there are two ways to find the surrounding POIs. One is to enter by clicking the button Discovery/Nearby on the home page of the product; The other is to enter according to the search prompt through the search bar at the top.

first, when we open Baidu map, there will be a button to find the periphery at the bottom of the homepage of the software. Click it to see the peripheral data provided by Baidu. (map of gaode: home page → nearby)

second, directly click on the search bar at the top, and a POI search prompt will appear below the search bar.

Take Baidu Map and Gaode Map as examples. Both apps classify POIs into six categories: eating, living, traveling, playing, scenic spots, shopping and living. You can choose either a large category or a small category in a large category.

e.g. can choose food directly, or choose small categories of food, such as snacks and fast food.

This is a POI classification perceived from the perspective of mobile users, which basically covers all kinds of information requirements around the geographical location.

The unique POI can even become the propaganda point of map products. In the recently updated version of sogou Map, the search for charging pile data has been added to meet the charging needs of electric vehicle owners. At the same time, its competing products: Baidu map, Gaode map, etc. can't search for charging pile data. At this time, the map of sogou is irreplaceable for some electric vehicle owners.

2.? POI classification of developer platform

Here's a little talk about POI classification of developer platform. Many apps need map data access in the development process. For developers, the POI classification they see is as follows:

Baidu map open platform-POI industry classification

This classification is very detailed, and there are 17 first-class industries. In Gaud's open platform, POI categories are even divided into 21 categories, and each category is divided into secondary and tertiary categories. The POI classification of the developer platform is very detailed and rigorous, and the key point is to be completely exhausted and independent.

second, the detailed analysis in POI design

first, ask a question, why should POI be added to map products? POI is a basic element of a map. In the paper map, we can see the signs for scenic spots and hotels. With the migration of maps to the Internet, POI has been continuously improved.

For users, the existence of POI can quickly find the destination and facilitate travel; For manufacturers, increasing the active time of users, such as adding the function of searching for food in Baidu map, will correspondingly reduce the number of people who jump off Baidu map and turn to public comments. For companies that are building their own ecosystem, it is conducive to realizing the closed loop of products and allowing users to complete a set of actions in their own system class.

therefore, for map products, POI is the core function of the product besides navigation. So how is it designed in the existing products?

1.? POI portal design

has been mentioned before. The search box and the home button are all POI portals, and it is very simple for users to find them. But a difficult problem to overcome is: how to let users know that "I" can provide these to users? Provide users with thousands of people's entrance design, combined with big data analysis, and put the POI that users are most interested in in in the default search box.

Take a chestnut as an example: If the user's geographical location is the same every night, the system can vaguely determine that this is the user's home in the background, then in the search box, the default search prompts can be changed to: supermarket, express delivery, bank, food, etc.

Now open the map of Gaode. In the search box, the following figure is recommended by default. I stay in a familiar home and have never driven a car. I hardly have the need to search hotels, scenic spots and gas stations for a year.

2.? POI search result display design

Take the search scenic spot as an example. In the result page of each map App, the display elements of a single list element are as follows:

In the result list element, the information that users pay attention to and influence the decision should be displayed first. Before deciding to visit a scenic spot, users will pay attention to the distance from the scenic spot, the ticket price, the evaluation of the scenic spot and so on. In this regard, Baidu map and Gaode map have done a good job.

compare the comment information between gaode and Baidu: they will also display the star rating, but the difference is that gaode displays the number of comments, ranking and scenic spot labels, while Baidu displays scenic spot labels and comment labels. The advantage of Gao De's doing this is that for most users, this information can help decision-making, without clicking on the details page and reducing the user's step size.

In addition, for the map of Gaode and sogou, you can directly click the "Go here/I want to go" button on the list page and start navigation with one button. Baidu map and Tencent map can only be selected after the main points are selected.

The core of the search results display page lies in two points:

accurately display the information users want, and improve the search success rate by using semantic guessing and fuzzy word matching.

provide the elements that users pay attention to, and help users make decisions quickly and navigate to them on the list page as much as possible.

Third, how to play POI and more possibilities

1. Crowdsourcing national POI data

I saw a post on the Internet before about street view collection of map products. The workload is very heavy and hard, which requires a lot of manpower and material resources to maintain the map products.

gaode launched an App, gaode taojin. In the crowdsourcing application of map POI data, users can check or add the published POI data by taking photos at the client, and get corresponding rewards through review. This function can directly consider the reporting module of built-in map products, and add a function of POI verification, that is, everyone is a POI collector.

2.? Commercial closed loop of map products

Users form a closed loop in map products from picking up their mobile phones for location inquiry to completing offline consumption and online payment. The consumption habits of most users are: where food goes through public comments and hotel accommodation, and the map product is only a guiding tool, and it is put down when it reaches the destination.

actually, map products have a natural entrance, especially for BAT, which has built a huge ecosystem. Take Baidu map as an example. If the restaurants searched in Baidu map support Baidu glutinous rice, they can purchase/pay vouchers directly in Baidu map.

as a map tool, it should have the ambition of providing users with comprehensive and useful location information, helping users to easily complete the route planning needed for going out, arriving at the destination correctly, and providing users with the life services they need in time on the way to form a closed-loop business.

Recently, I accidentally learned that those peripheral recommendations in the original map were called POI, which was very interesting. Make good use of maps, and you will find that you are not a road idiot, but you just can't use maps. Let's talk about POI design in map products here first ~