The Princeton Map Application Students Deserve
Try TigerMap:
- Access this page on your Android device and click the button.
- Wait for download to complete.
- Open using package installer.
- If necessary, allow Unknown Sources on the settings page.
- Allow permissions and install.
- Enjoy TigerMap!
About TigerMap:
The reason for TigerMap is simple: Princeton's map application, The Pursuit of Mappyness, doesn't have directions, while Google Maps doesn't know Princeton very well.
For example, say a student wants to go from McCosh Health Center to Woolworth Music Center. To the right is a comparison of the suggestions from Google Maps and TigerMap.
While Google Maps suggests a bounding leap from McCosh Health Center to Washington Road and then a backtrack right past the main entrance, TigerMap suggests a much more direct route that goes from start to finish, even showing the exit from which one should leave McCosh Health Center.
This is just one example of the many places where TigerMap gives a shorter and more accurate path than Google Maps. While TigerMap uses a Google Maps interface, it doesn't rely on Google Map's routing. Instead, TigerMap uses its own data to create a route between the two points, then draws the markers and route.
Google Maps is an incredibly powerful tool, but its focus is not to understand the many complexities of a small, pedestrian campus like Princeton; TigerMap, on the other hand, focuses specifically on Princeton, and thus can focus on the little complexities, like the path to the southwest of Jones Hall in the picture to the right. Google Maps doesn't show anything there, but in the real world there is a paved path that anyone can walk on.
Unlike Google Maps, The Pursuit of Mappyness does know Princeton well. However, the accuracy of its map isn't very helpful when there is no pathfinding, as when you want directions to a location PoM sends you to Google Maps. A user couldn't get anything like the image to the right out of PoM. It just isn't made for directions.
TigerMap is sleek and simple: no clutter, no confusion.
All the interesting functionality in the world is pointless if the user cannot figure out how to access the functionality. TigerMap's focus is on keeping it simple so that basic functionality isn't buried by the more complicated pieces. If you want to find the way from Nassau Hall to Frist Campus Center, all it takes is a little bit of typing and two button presses.
What Does TigerMap Do?
Directions:
Beyond the basic directions functionality, "show me a path from point A to point B", TigerMap has a variety of more advanced features associated with directions.
- My Location: Instead of starting from a building, you can choose to start from your present location (as determined by your phone's GPS positioning). This is especially useful if you don't know where you are on campus and need to find a known landmark.
- Class Name Locations: Instead of building names, you can type in course numbers (like CLG 108, COS 333, etc.). These work just as if you typed the location of the class, so COS 333 shows McCosh Hall.
- Multi-Locations: Want to know how to get from Friend to Frick to Baker without looking up directions twice? TigerMap supports multiple destinations so that you can find a path between multiple locations in a chain.
Autocomplete:
Not sure how to spell "Frelinghuysen Field"? Just type the first few letters (Fr) and the autocomplete feature will automatically suggest valid locations.
The autocomplete feature includes locations from all over campus, from Wyman House to Lourie-Love Pavilion to Von Neumann Hall, so you never have to know how to spell a place's entire name ever again!
Find:
Find shows locations of a certain type near a given starting point, like "Laundry near Cuyler Hall." TigerMap supports a variety of locations to find: Food (dining halls and cafes around campus), Vending Machines, Keyless Lock Hotspots, Computer Clusters, Printers, Scanners, Libraries, and Laundry.
For example, if the you tapped "Find" on the screen to the right, it would be shown the printers closest to McCosh Hall (the location of COS 333) and paths to each of these printers.
Like Directions, Find supports standard location names, class names, "My Location," and has autocomplete help.
The Map:
To the left is an image of the result of the find query from above ("find printers near COS 333") after the user taps the McCosh icon.
As seen before, the map uses Google Maps as a base, but draws markers and paths independently of Google Maps pathfinding.
The new piece in this picture is the info window. Every marker has an info window with information about the location. For example, McCosh Hall houses the Department of English, a cluster in room B59, and a printer in the same room.
Because the user wanted to find printers near McCosh Hall, and there is a printer in McCosh Hall, the info window notes that this is both the start point and a destination. It behaves similarly if the user chooses the same start and destination for directions.
Another interesting piece of this info window is the "B59: Up and Running". This is information about the printer drawn in real time from the OIT website (which is updated every 5 minutes). This means you can check whether the nearby printer is online before walking there.
If you choose to find Food, the info window also displays whether the location is open, and how long until it opens/closes.
For example, the user has chosen to find Food near McCosh Hall. After clicking on one of the markers, they see that the U Store is open and won't close for another 1 hours and 43 minutes. If it were closed, it would display the time until the location reopens.
Also, since this location isn't the source, at the top is information about how far away it is (in this case 0.3 miles) and how long it will take to reach it, given the user's walk speed (which in this case happens to be 3 minutes to walk a mile. You are very fast!). This walk speed is set on the settings page, which is described next.
Settings:
TigerMap comes with a variety of useful settings:
- Wheelchair accessible paths only: When this setting is on, the app will only show paths that don't have any steps. It will also only point to computer clusters that are wheelchair accessible.
- Paths can cross grass: When this setting is on, the app will include paths that cut across grassy places like Poe Field or Cannon Green. These paths are traversible but are not paved.
- Walk Speed: This is how many minutes it takes you to walk a mile. This allows you to get custom estimates for how long trips will take.
- Number of Locations to Find: This determines how many locations the "Find" page will show. This means you can search for any number of vending machines you please.
- Show only online printers: When this setting is on, the "Find" page will find the nearest working printers. Any printers that are jammed, not responding, etc. will be ignored in favor of a printer that is working (though slightly further away).
- Show only open dining halls: When this setting is on, the "Find" page will find only dining halls and cafes nearby that are currently open.
Error Handling
Of course, there are a variety of errors that can come up when you are using this app. Luckily, the TigerMap app has you covered. For example, if you accidentally type "First", instead of "Frist", you will see the an error message like the one to the right letting you know that First is not a valid location. It is easy to use the autocomplete feature, but the app also does its best to make sure that reasonable variations on a name lead to the proper place: for example, just "Frist" is the same as "Frist Campus Center", and "McCarter Theater" and "McCarter Theatre" will both work.
The settings have two layers of error handling: for example, if you try to ask TigerMap to find 3.4 locations, the settings page itself will let you know about this error, but even if you ignore that message, the server will let you know you made a mistake if you try to make a request.
The Data
One of TigerMap's most valuable assets is the extensive map of walkable locations on campus, a visualization of which can be seen in the picture below. From the E-Quad to the Grad College, from the Elementary Particles Lab to Madison Hall, nearly every walkable path on campus has been mapped so that you can find the fastest path between any two places on campus.
So what are you waiting for? Try TigerMap today!