After some delay we finally kicked off the new campus map project with a two hour meeting, tons of notes and some whiteboarding.

Current campus map

The current map is completely flash based. We developed it over six years ago when flash was the upcoming trend. Although it is old it still works great, we have had nothing but compliments from visitors about how easy it is to use. We have tested it with many people and we don't want to loose any functionality. The problem is it is not accessible on mobile phones and is hard to connect to external services.

As a small mobile fix we forward any mobile traffic to an SVG version of the map so it is at least usable if someone is walking around campus and is accessing it from their mobile phone.

The current campus map is available at http://campusmap.wayne.edu/ (opens new window) The SVG version is available at http://campusmap.wayne.edu/iphone/

Some upcoming new features

• Built on top of Google Maps
• Mobile version with location awareness
• Separate maps for main, medical and extension center campuses
• Locations for OneCard fill machines, ATM's, wifi, computer labs, blue lights
• Campus tours
• More images/videos per location
• Upcoming events per location
• Integration with Foursquare/Gowalla/SCVNGR

User interaction

The best thing about using a whiteboard is the ability for everyone to see the same thing, add and erase things as comments come up. Walking through the user experience step by step gives everyone on the team the ability to understand the features and layout in context. The drawing above although it looks simple took a few iterations to get to and a lot of the functionality identified in the single picture.

Basic functionality like listing and searching was the largest part of the discussion, then allowing single or multi layers on the map and how a visitor would add, see and remove them. The options are endless but seeing it on a surface, using a finger as a mouse and actually mimicking the user's experience is crucial to coming up with a usable product.

We will be posting more about the map as it develops in the coming weeks.