When Verizon purchased AOL in 2015, MapQuest was among the acquisition, and new new division called “Verizon Location Services”(VLS) was born. 

As the first product in the Location Services suite of products, MapQuest needed an overhaul. First, we decided to update the map style, as it was the visual canvas for everything the user could do—whether navigating, searching, or exploring. 

We hired an amazing cartographer to join the team, and cross-trained her in UX/UI. (She now utilizes what she learned in a cross-disciplinary role as a career!)

We instructed her to review user feedback to understand their current needs, and where the map was falling short. To revalidate these complaints and feedback, we benchmark tested the map design in the context of cartographic basics: Are roads legible? Are labels clear? Is land use obvious? Benchmarking gave us a baseline, and outlined how we could improve the map through tangible and testable metrics.

We validated what we had suspected. Users were having a hard time identifying areas on the map correctly due to a lack of legibility. We needed to focus on improving the labeling and hierarchy issues, as well as an entirely new color palette.

With this insight in hand, we instructed the cartographer to create a few mood boards to determine a new direction for the MapQuest map, and to conduct a competitive analysis between our competitors.

We worked with our cartographer to apply her knowledge of cartographic history and principles to the product. She created a new color palette which utilized brightness and saturation to create hierarchy. We created a parallel between map shapes and real-life objects, and built a new system of iconography.

It was then time to conduct user testing, and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of the new map style. Labels were more legible, highways easier to identify, and parks and other green spaces were no longer confused as urban landscapes.

For the map to go live, we had to convince the stakeholders this was a result of an objective design process, and a move in the right direction. The team’s technical approach to map design, competitive analysis, and user testing was integral for stakeholder buy-in.  

Finally, we presented to the Verizon executive stakeholders and advocated for our conclusions. Approval granted.

We published the new map style to MapQuest mobile apps first. The team needed to transition the desktop version from a raster map to a vector map, which was a large feat all in itself.

Our small team, as well as the 160 others within Verizon Location Services, celebrated this launch as one of the most visible changes to the product in half a decade. Over 30 million monthly users now use the map style in both web and mobile versions of MapQuest.