Map Scrollwheels are a UX Disaster
I do not know who decided that using the scrollwheel on a mouse to zoom in and out of a map was an appropriate mapping, but that person deserves to be shamed and punished. Every time I use an embedded map I get angry. Here is the workflow:
- I load a page with an embedded map. The latest culprit is the Environment Canada Weather Radar Map but there are many others.
- I scroll down the page to see the map.
- As soon as my cursor hits the map I stop scrolling down on the page and the map zooms in so that I cannot even see what is going on
- I curse and shake my fist
- I then have to use the web page scrollbar to move down the page and waste at least a minute trying to re-center the map so I can see what is happening. If I am using my netbook then I waste several minutes for the Javascript to catch up.
If you are designing a map embedded in a webpage, DON'T DO THIS. Taking over inputs intended for one thing and using them for something completely different on the same page is BAD DESIGN. Why doesn't anybody understand this?
I know that these settings are tweakable because I turned off the scroll-wheel binding for the https://waterlooregionvotes.org maps and it works fine. If people want to zoom in or out they can use the + and - buttons like civilized people.
I honestly get so angry at UX designers sometimes. So often the "usability improvements" they pretend are science-based are just trendy garbage. Trendy garbage sets up expectations for how an interface "should work", and then everybody has to follow suit even when the trendy garbage makes our lives worse. Firefox commits this sin all the time, and I am sick of it.