Took 48th Ave north to M-45 W/Lake Michigan Dr in Allendale a couple days ago. Took one of the MUTIs that had the U-turn TIO at the beginning and None at the end. I didn’t mind it, per se, but I noticed something that I thought was worth mentioning.
The distance countdown hit 0 as soon as I entered the MUTI, which was still a little ways before any real turning actually occurred. Routing then moved on to the next turn instruction (which was 15 miles away) and quietly waited for me to finish and exit the MUTI.
Thing was, when that countdown first hit 0, I instinctively flinched the same way I do whenever I miss a turn, and waited for the re-route to chime in — even though cognitively I knew that this MUTI was one of the Uturn/None test cases set up a couple weeks ago.
This reaction is understandable after considering the visual/auditory cues and patterns that nav systems use. A counter reaching 0 and navigation moving on to the next part of the drive is what users expect to occur whenever they successfully follow a turn instruction. The hiccup in this Uturn/None context is that the user has not changed direction when they enter the MUTI, yet receive cues that they have (apart from the map visual, that is).
We as editors know that the “None” is coming and we won’t be re-routed even though we just drove past an instruction to change direction. Other users, however, are accustomed to being re-routed a few seconds after the same set of cues.
While I don’t think “It reminds users of what happens when they miss turns” is a reason to abandon the U-turn/None combo, it’s still something to keep in mind.