For a while now, we’ve been observing our users struggling to use the map in our iPhone application. We’ve received numerous reports from our users who, after finding the address of a friend or a shop in our app, would open the map but then, mysteriously, fail to find their way there. Worse still, sometimes they would become hopelessly lost and be forced to resort to 20th century technology such as asking a passer by for help!

As you can imagine, not only has this caused a great deal of distress our users, but some of our engineering team was developing bald patches from so much head scratching.

The good news is we think we’ve finally solved the Mystery of the Map. After extensive usability testing and psychoanalysis of our users, it seems it all boils down to this;

…that’s right – the map pin we use to mark a Point of Interest (POI). It turns out that the pin metaphor was entirely wrong. The strongest association people have with pins is the pain of being pricked. This is further compounded with childhood memories such as vaccinations and Sleep Beauty, all of which contribute to increasing stress levels.

Now the body’s reaction to stress, as you may know, is to produce adrenaline – the natural reaction to external threats such as the sudden appearance of a saber-tooth tiger. In other words, instead of arriving comfortably at their desired location, our users were fighting an overwhelming urge to run away as quickly as possible!

Since making this discovery, we’ve been hard at work trying to identify the perfect POI icon for our users. Going one better than the rest, we tested no less than 42 different designs, before identifying the most harmony-inducing icon.

And the result? Well it’s best experienced in the app directly. Just tap on the “Map” button top right above any result list and see what you think…