Microsoft Map Editor
Map Editor is designed to improve global map accuracy and richness. By allowing users to actively contribute information Map Editor can improve products like Azure Maps, Microsoft Start, and Bing. Currently released in select regions. Full details and case study available upon request!*
Problem overview
How might we encourage Microsoft Windows users to help improve map data quality and reliability?
Our design repsonse
Interactive Places of Interest (POI) and activity cards are used to show areas where users can contribute to the map. Our backend ML model identifies these gaps in the map data.
Mappers engage with activities by tracing polygons that follow the provided satellite image. For additional data, they can enter any relevant details about that location such as address or category type. Submitted entries that pass a review process will be added to the map data and changes will be reflected in the Microsoft products.
Community and gaming features reward users for their contributions and help them engage with other mappers to maintain high data quality standards.
My role
Collaborate with PM to conduct user research, understand business needs, and define roadmap items.
Deliver rapid iterations and hi-fidelity mockups working alongside UX Writers, Privacy, Illustrators, and Design Systems team members.
Support engineers during the implementation process to ensure the quality of the final user experience of the product.
Understanding business needs and user motivations
When I first joined, this project was largely introduced to me as a way of fulfilling business needs. While our immediate goal was to deliver a delightful experience, I facilitated user research studies to better understand user’s needs and motivations.
After conducting six qualitative interviews and surveying 100 Microsoft users, we found that users are motivated by:
1) Altruism
Users wanted to help improve the map for other users.
2) Incentives
Users wanted to be rewarded for their contributions in the experience
Ongoing questions we are trying to answer
How can we introduce more activities to improve data for Microsoft’s mapping products?
How can we improve onboarding so Microsoft’s diverse user demographics can easily get acclimated with the platform?