case study
from boring to breathtaking
MapsIndoors had tackled the biggest challenges in indoor navigation, but its old look masked that strength. This gap caused slow sales, clients undervaluing its worth, and the product not meeting its full potential. I came on board in 2021 to bridge the gap between its technical prowess and its perceived value.
my role
Lead Product Designer
platform
Web, Android, iOS
duration
6 Months
impact
+110% YoY ARR growth rate
the problem
Power without polish
MapsIndoors faced a challenge despite its strong features for airports, hospitals, and campuses. I call this the engineer's dilemma: great technical power hidden by a dull interface.
The maps appeared basic and unfinished. The visuals weren't consistent, and demos often missed the mark for impressing enterprise clients.
How the product looked before I started
In short, the product was technically brilliant but aesthetically invisible—an obstacle standing directly in the way of growth and causing real business challenges 📉:
Growth was stagnating despite strong underlying technology
Competitors with weaker capabilities appeared more compelling in the market
Prospects judged the product’s value by its appearance rather than its functionality
my role
Bridging perception and product
As the Lead Product Designer, I needed to bridge the gap between MapsIndoors' technical capabilities and its perception.
When a product looks cohesive and well-designed, people see it as more valuable, trustworthy, and easy to use.
I began by imagining what the product might look like. This helped boost team spirit and excitement:
My goal was clear: I had to showcase MapsIndoors' true power right at first glance, so sales teams could create impressive moments and help enterprise buyers make quick decisions.
What I owned:
Product visual direction and design system (tokens, components, motion)
Research & validation with enterprise stakeholders (airports, hospitals)
Map styling and UI polish across web & SDK surfaces
Solution
Scaling aesthetics
To make all maps visually appealing, we needed a design system that could scale so MapsIndoors would always look beautiful and impressive, no matter where users interacted with it.
I developed the system and created an interactive Framer site that allowed anyone to easily click and obtain the correct colors and icons, not just designers.
results
Enterprise customers taking notice
The product's improved design outperformed competitors and increased perceived usability without major functional changes. Large-scale customers, valuing aesthetics, were attracted to the new 3D rendering. This design-focused approach drove MapsPeople's annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth by 110% that year.
A live shot from a stadium using the new design
bonus
What else
Other than leading this initiative, I also had my hands in a bunch of other initiatives to make MapsPeople look like an industry leader, spanding over from Marketing to Product.
Here's a few examples of work I did:
