Google Maps widely rolling out new color palette

It's cold and has really shitty "inter item" contrast. I don't get how they think this is an improvement.

Sure, it screenshots better. It makes a "nicer" picture in isolation.

Problem is, maps is a tool not a piece of art. I don't care how "good" it looks. I care how effective it is at being a tool. If you can make it look better while still functioning, sure, no gripes here.

But the road contrast with the background has been severely increased. Problem is, roads are a step to getting somewhere. I'm not looking for roads. I'm looking for POIs. And when navigating, I'm looking for which road to take. Giving every road contrast against the background means everything else has less contrast against the roads.

I find it much harder to sift through seas of pins. But more importantly, the navigation "path" highlight has such little contrast to roads it's even harder to discern where I'm supposed to be going at a glance. Previously there was a high contrast blue line against literally everything else so I could look away from the road and in a split second know which way it wants me to head.

Now I have to try to pick the deeper slightly contrasted line out of a sea of lines which are all in high contrast against the background. And they're all even tinted blue. This removes two of your brains subconscious cues for picking these things out and it makes it significantly harder to discern without really paying more attention to the map. Which is literally not how navigation should work. Navigation is meant to be glanceable.

Honestly, this pushes me more to look for alternatives. But every other competing product is a joke and Google Maps still has the biggest feature set by miles so it's pretty futile.

I really like it, but it'd be nice if they offered customization options for folks who feel differently.

https://osmand.net is also an open source option.