Mio, the leading satellite navigation company elected to design and build a new interface for all their portable GPS software. As a global company, it was important that they conducted detailed market research. However, they took it a stage further and asked numerous key groups of not only the UK’s population and also in Germany and the US.
The three key areas that the research focussed on are as follows; how the consumers saw future development of the navigation market; out-of-vehicle interaction with the device and possible improvements for the user’s experience. In addition to this, GPS devices (http://eu.mio.com/
The result of this rigorous research was a large number of user profiles that could be used to separate consumer groups and highlight the potential opportunities for the new interface. This information was given to design teams to begin work on new software products that have in essence, been specifically targeted at, and essentially commissioned by the real end users.
The themes and briefs set for the design teams were to ensure that the interface software was faster and therefore easier to find destinations. Also it was important that the device became more interactive, so that the different consumer groups could access a virtual vault of information that would be specific to their needs. This user-centric interface would require fewer clicks and less time than anything previously seen in the Sat Nav industry. The name Spirit was given to the project and according to Mio, it undoubtedly demanded a new way of thinking from their design team in order to provide the user with the ultimate Sat Nav experience.
Although this was only the first part of the project completed as now the separate software components had to be merged into one complete entity. This was a whole new feat as each software feature had been treated as an independent application with its own GPS maps and programming. It also had to stay true to the original consumer briefs and fulfil the real needs of its future users. Furthermore, once the features had been sewn together, the ergonomic architecture had to be built to compliment the new technology whilst still remaining a slim and affordable piece of equipment for the mass market.
After all the design and consumer input into this piece of software engineering, the Spirit design should set a fresh benchmark for the portable GPS market. It also demonstrates how companies like Mio who wants to remain at the forefront of ever-demanding GPS technology must place a strong focus on their investment into research and development and be prepared to stretch their design teams.
