Nokia Maps
This was one of the first Nokia apps to use the Windows Phone ‘Metro’ design language, designed to help users explore and navigate the environment around them. Under the HERE brand, the app was preloaded on all Nokia Windows Phones.
I was one half of the design team developing the first Windows Phone app, later becoming responsible for the overall user experience. We worked directly with the folks at Microsoft design to apply their new design system, built to be bold, clean, and authentically digital.
UX Design Lead • UI Design Lead
Key contributions
UX Design
Visual Design
Design system
User research planning
Authentically digital
A few key screens from the app.
Windows Phone was a bold, refreshing approach to designing mobile experiences – designed to be bold, clean, and authentically digital. The design principles celebrated typography and eschewed superfluous chrome, instead encouraging users to interact directly with the content. It was refreshing, and exciting to work on. We wanted to used these principles to develop something new.
The design of the app was anchored around a swipe-able panel anchored to the bottom of the map – an interaction pattern that is pretty common now but was novel at the time. Cropping the content below the screen made it clear there was more content to be discovered.
The content drawer shown across different areas of the app. The content itself became an affordance to switch between views.
Using the content drawer to browse places nearby.
User research to challenge assumptions and build empathy
B2C apps are easier to build in some ways, as the whole product team can more easily relate to user needs. But as much as we feel this is true, we also bring our own assumptions and priorities.
From day one, evaluative user research was embedded in the development process for the whole team. Working with our team of researchers, we tested and iterated new concepts either in our dedicated lab, or out in the ‘real world’.
These testing sessions were joined by members from the whole team, to challenge our own biased assumptions and to build empathy.
A foundation for some innovative features
Over multiple releases we built a library of components and logic that was shared with the development team and extended with each release. Together, we released offline maps, search and favourites, multi-modal route planning, indoor maps, and an AR place discovery view.
The app was a reference for Nokia’s (later HERE Technologies’) future consumer maps apps on Android and iOS.
Augmented reality
One example where the app was breaking new ground was with an AR view for discovering places nearby. When activated, tilting the device switched between camera and map views - helping the use seamlessly orientate places to the map and the real world. A concept for which the team received an international patent.
In AR mode, tilting the device switched between camera and map views.
I’m still grateful for the opportunity to push the boundaries of mobile mapping with such a talented team.
Previous: HERE Indoor Maps
Previous: Rich 3D City Maps