Google Maps
Improving Navigation Trust in Unfamiliar Areas for Tourists on Google Maps.
Overview
A case study exploring how Google Maps could better serve travelers — with personalised directions, stronger visual hierarchy, and real-time updates that build trust and reduce reliance on third-party apps.
The Problem
Tourists in unfamiliar cities use Maps differently to locals — they second-guess routes, switch to other apps for transit and reviews, and lose trust the moment context goes missing. The same product is doing two jobs and quietly under-serving one of them.
The Process
How the work came together.
Step 01
User research
Interviews with travelers across three city types — capital, coastal, and rural — alongside a desk-research review of the apps they reached for instead of Maps.
Step 02
Journey mapping
Mapped the tourist journey from arrival to departure to find the moments where trust breaks down. The pattern was consistent: transit handoffs, low-data zones, and decision-heavy intersections.
Step 03
Concept exploration
Sketched solutions around three principles — personalised directions, real-time data, and a stronger visual hierarchy under cognitive load.
Step 04
UI & prototype
Designed high-fidelity flows for the four highest-impact moments: first arrival, transit transfer, finding a place, and re-routing.
The Solution
Personalised routes that adapt to a traveler's pace, clearer hierarchy when many things compete for attention, and richer in-context information built into the map itself — so visitors don't have to leave Maps to feel oriented.
Results · Impact
The numbers, after launch.
9
Travelers interviewed
4
Journey maps produced
18
High-fidelity screens
2
Concept videos
