OuterSpatial Maps – interative maps serve as the gateway to adventure, helping visitors and outdoor enthusiasts seamlessly discover trails, parks, and public areas.

ROLE

Product Designer

TIMELINE

3 Months

RESPONSIBILITIES

Research, Usability, Interaction, Visual & Prototyping, Testing

OVERVIEW

OuterSpatial's web mapping experience is a crucial tool for recreational explorers, enabling them to discover and navigate areas, trails, and parks efficiently.  

Over a 3-month redesign process, we identified pain points, gathered user insights, and implemented design improvements that enhanced discoverability, engagement, and usability-- ultimately making it easier for adventurers to plan and navigate their outdoor experiences through our interactive map feature.

RESULTS

Introducing smart clustering and dynamic filtering, we transformed static browsing into an engaging journey in guiding our users to their perfect outdoor experience. With a new interactive experience, adventureres can seamlessly zoom, search, and filter locations with precision - making trip planning effortless. 

CHALLENGE

A core feature of the OuterSpatial platform was not delivering a useful exploration experience. 

How can we create a more intuitive and engaging map exploration experience that ensure users can quickly find, explore, and engage with outdoor destinations without friction?

OUTCOME

Redefine how users explore the outdoors.

With a cleaner interface and intuitive filtering, adventurers can optimally discover trails, customize their searches, and interact with the map effortlessly.

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SPACE

People hate when they have to work hard to find what they need, especially when exploring should feel effortless.

I conducted user interviews with freuqent adventures and first time-visitors, measured engagement through heatmaps and scroll-tracking data, and analyzed performance to identify bottlenecks causing slow interactions. Through user interviews, behavioral analytics, and performance testing, it revealed 3 key pain points:

Cognititve Overload

Users struggled to interpret overlapping POIs and excessive visual noise.

Use of Filtering Tools

Many visitors either failed to locate or abandoned filtering options.

Slow Performance

Laggy interfaces and performance speeds took too long to show users results.

These insights revealed that the problem was not just about navigation - it was about clarity, efficiency, and performance.

ANALYZING & IDEATION

Reducing clutter & improving readability.

1. Overlapping markers and excessive information made navigation overwhelming

✅ Smart clustering of POIs and contextual details on hover & click

- Introduce marker clustering for dynamic grouping nearby POIs until zoomed in for reducing visual clutter
- Allowing users to preview location details by clicking for an expanded view to reduce unnecessary clicks

2. Personalized Exploration

✅ Category-based exploration

- Redesign filtering options to be more intuitive, allowing users to filter through accessibility, activity types, services, amenities, and more for a customizable map viewing experience

3. Improving performance & web experience

✅ Optimize load performance

- Compress map assets to reduce files and implement lazy loading to ensure only visible map elements load on the initial view point to reduce time-to-interactive engagement

FINAL DESIGN

Not just a map - an essential companion for adventurers and outdoor communities alike

By addressing core pain points and refining the interaction experience, we transformed how users explore and plan their outdoor adventures. The OuterSpatial mapping experience becomes an indispensable tool from improvements made through usability, personalization, and performance.

RESULTS

Learnings and next steps

User research shaped the redesign, reinforcing the importance of continous testing and refinement. Reducing clutter and friction resulted in more meaningful user interactions and performance enhancements showed immediate impact.

⚡️ Bounce rates reduced by 32%
⚡️ Filter usage increased by 52%
⚡️ Scroll depth engagement improved by 39%

Future of maps

The complexity of maps is ever-changing and we aim to cultivate an experience that makes OuterSpatial Maps an indispensible tool.

In future explorations, we aim to have real-time data integration to gives users more up-to-date information and explore live trail conditions from user generated reports.

By continuously refining the OuterSpatial web experience based on user feedback and data insights, we can further solidify its role as the go-to platform for outdoor adventure planning.