As iRobot's suite of products expand beyond floorcare, and we work towards a home centric app, it has become increasingly important to be intentional about how we leverage our mapping capabilities — Our current maps have a lot of elements, and as we expand our product lines and features they’ll have even more. To address this, I conducted an audit of maps today, their purpose & their potential in a future smart home centric app.
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Role & Team: Sr. UX Designer, iRobot
Tools: Miro, Figjam
Skills: UX Discovery + Ideation
Deliverables: Audit, Direction for future functionality
APPROACH
Distill the main jobs we rely on maps to accomplish today
Explore what types maps are most critical to achieve these jobs
Consider what jobs we will want maps to accomplish in the future
AUDIT OF TODAY
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/386e5c_a25a6a9f52534a27ad3316ee471abe0d~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_455,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/386e5c_a25a6a9f52534a27ad3316ee471abe0d~mv2.png)
WHAT WE FOUND
At their core, iRobot leverages maps to offer transparency 🪟 or control 🎮.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/386e5c_32e62d20743644eba3f6f6a3050ff4ff~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_698,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/386e5c_32e62d20743644eba3f6f6a3050ff4ff~mv2.png)
Though there were many map types in the current app, we could really break down what we need to 4 main categories:
1. Home Map 🪟
A living, ever evolving map that is the underlying spatial information to drive any other map in the app.
Key Job: Provide a single, easily comprehendible source of truth for spatial characteristics of the home.
2. Display of Data 🪟
A map used to tell a particular story, displaying only what is necessary to convey that information clearly and concisely.
Key Jobs:
Static: Summary of a goal or mission(s), etc. – quickly show what area was covered, objects encountered, dirt events, new spaces found, etc.
Living: “Live” snapshot of the home – answers the question: what is the most important thing going on in the home, now?
3. Editing 🎮
A view of the map with controls to add or edit characteristics of the basic map.
Key Job: Enable map customization, such as dividers, zones, labels, viewpoints etc.
4. Mission Initiation 🎮
A view of the map with controls specific to starting, or controlling robot missions
Key Job: Initiate & control a robot at the start of & during a mission.
NEXT STEPS
As a result of this exploration, further discovery work has been defined & workshops are in progress to collaborate with product and research to answer questions like:
What does each view of the map look like – what do we need to show (or not show) in order for it do its job successfully?
When would we need to transition from one map type to another? What do those transitions look like? How can we make these transitions seamless for users?