Don’t clutter your website with a Google Map

Most websites these days are beautifully designed and mercifully uncluttered.

And yet, when it comes to showing the location of our business, most of us are tempted to spoil the effect with an ugly, fussy Google map.

Don’t get me wrong: Google Maps is a fine product. It’s pretty well designed for its intended purpose. I particularly like their new projection, which lets you navigate as if we lived on a round planet rather than on a flat piece of paper. Which, by the way, we do.

Google Maps’ new projection

Zoom in a little, though, and Google Maps quickly becomes cluttered. It’s fine for information and navigation, it’s just that it doesn’t belong on your  website: it’s not your  colours, it’s not your  look and feel, it’s not your  design.

Simple, sparse Apple website with plenty of white space and no unnecessary clutter

Can you imagine Apple’s destroying the whole effect by adding a Google Map that advertises the Santa Clara DMV and Golfland USA?

The truth is, some tech companies have design in their DNA, and others don’t.

Apple has design in its DNA

Google… not so much

So what should you do if you need to show your business location on your website, and let your customers know how to get there?

Shameless plug for my own maps: add a kookoomap with a Get directions button. Like your website, kookoomaps are beautifully designed, with plenty of white space and no unnecessary clutter, and can be fully customized with your brand colors and logo.