Narrative:

Maintenance ferry flight to ewr. Rushed on arrival [to aircraft] as maintenance plugged in 5 minutes after arriving on 100+ degree flight deck and asked if we were ready. I usually cover being heads up on taxi and backing captain up on all turns. I didn't in the rush of the departure.flight was uneventful. First officer (first officer) landed on 04R; exited on P3; tower advised 'continue taxi; traffic holding in position; cross 4L on kilo; contact ground' so we never stopped the airplane and kept it rolling in consideration of holding traffic. On kilo; I looked down at jepp FD-pro; and couldn't readily see anything in airport moving map; the default application when slowing below 80 kts. With the new revision; the airport moving map contrast has been dramatically reduced. All I saw was a jumble of characters floating in a sea of nearly uniform grey without clear; contrasting airport layout. I could not tell where I was; where our assigned gate was; or which way we were supposed to go.ground instructions; 'alpha to ramp' were ambiguous. First officer was heads down. I turned left on a; first officer looked up and said; 'we're supposed to go right.' we were through 45 degrees of turn; and there was no way to correct. I finished the turn onto a; and first officer contacted ground; saying we made a wrong turn. Ground laughed and said; 'alpha to bravo; left on K' looking down at jepp; all I saw was a sea of grey; with a and B nearby; just to our south. I taxied a bit south on a; trying to figure out what ground meant. Jepp map was useless; but since the 'a' and 'B' symbols were nearby; I thought perhaps they intersected. They don't.and ground; after we had taxied about 50 yards; with laughter in the background; stated 'you missed the turn! So; just continue south on alpha and turn left on rome fox to rejoin bravo.' well... Ground's directions a to B were ambiguous. Since they're parallel; what taxiway was I supposed to take from a to B? I couldn't question the clearance; because the jepp map was useless...just floating symbols. I couldn't see the clearance on the map.I stopped the airplane. Switched maps back to the traditional jepp. Asked ground to repeat the instructions; and asked the first officer to stay heads up. We had further taxi challenges; including instructions from ramp to taxi into the ballpark; where there was insufficient clearance between an rj and a 757 that had been moved in under tow after the clearance was issued. We refused the clearance.but with a functioning taxi chart; we were able to comply with (or properly question) all subsequent clearances.ground control may have thought that this was all quite amusing but their instructions were ambiguous and their behavior; unprofessional. Alpha to bravo without a connecting taxiway leaves a crew with unclear guidance. We couldn't have missed a turn that they did not assign.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier Captain reported difficulty with electronic displays of ground taxiways along with ambiguous taxi instructions led to a taxiway incursion.

Narrative: Maintenance ferry flight to EWR. Rushed on arrival [to aircraft] as maintenance plugged in 5 minutes after arriving on 100+ degree flight deck and asked if we were ready. I usually cover being heads up on taxi and backing Captain up on all turns. I didn't in the rush of the departure.Flight was uneventful. FO (First Officer) landed on 04R; exited on P3; tower advised 'Continue taxi; traffic holding in position; cross 4L on Kilo; contact ground' so we never stopped the airplane and kept it rolling in consideration of holding traffic. On Kilo; I looked down at Jepp FD-Pro; and couldn't readily see anything in Airport Moving Map; the default application when slowing below 80 kts. With the new revision; the Airport Moving Map contrast has been dramatically reduced. All I saw was a jumble of characters floating in a sea of nearly uniform grey without clear; contrasting airport layout. I could not tell where I was; where our assigned gate was; or which way we were supposed to go.Ground instructions; 'Alpha to ramp' were ambiguous. FO was heads down. I turned left on A; FO looked up and said; 'We're supposed to go right.' We were through 45 degrees of turn; and there was no way to correct. I finished the turn onto A; and FO contacted ground; saying we made a wrong turn. Ground laughed and said; 'Alpha to Bravo; left on K' Looking down at Jepp; all I saw was a sea of grey; with A and B nearby; just to our south. I taxied a bit south on A; trying to figure out what Ground meant. Jepp map was useless; but since the 'A' and 'B' symbols were nearby; I thought perhaps they intersected. They don't.And Ground; after we had taxied about 50 yards; with laughter in the background; stated 'you missed the turn! So; just continue south on Alpha and turn left on Rome Fox to rejoin Bravo.' Well... Ground's directions A to B were ambiguous. Since they're parallel; what taxiway was I supposed to take from A to B? I couldn't question the clearance; because the Jepp Map was useless...just floating symbols. I couldn't see the clearance on the map.I stopped the airplane. Switched maps back to the traditional Jepp. Asked Ground to repeat the instructions; and asked the FO to stay heads up. We had further taxi challenges; including instructions from ramp to taxi into the ballpark; where there was insufficient clearance between an RJ and a 757 that had been moved in under tow after the clearance was issued. We refused the clearance.But with a functioning taxi chart; we were able to comply with (or properly question) all subsequent clearances.Ground control may have thought that this was all quite amusing but their instructions were ambiguous and their behavior; unprofessional. Alpha to Bravo without a connecting taxiway leaves a crew with unclear guidance. We couldn't have missed a turn that they did not assign.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.