Apple | Product Design and Dev | 2018
Bike-to-Work Dashboard
Designing a scalable, secure, and fun way to improve engagement on Bike-to-Work day.
Creating Surprise and Delight
When I first met with the team responsible for Bike-to-Work day in winter of 2016, they had a simple request: update the email templates used for sending a site wide email. This was accomplished the next day, but after talking with the team of volunteers, it was clear the projects needs were much greater than a simple email design update.
Apple has a phrase that says "surprise and delight". That was my goal with this project. Deliver what was asked for, but open their minds to greater, and accomplishable goals.
Working for the team, we agreed on a stretch goal (since Bike-to-Work day was fast approaching in spring of 2017, and there was little time for an app to be designed, developed, tested, secured, and deployed) of creating an application to manage end-to-end Bike-to-Work Day.
New Technologies
One of the first things I do when working on an open-ended project is talk to engineering teams. I want to dig in to what things engineers are excited about. In Austin, I got to chatting with a few folks from the Maps team and they told me about an under-utilized technology: MapKit JS – still internal to Apple at the time.
MapKit JS was created for use on icloud.com to support find-my, and so far the technology wasn't used outside of the iCloud org. I took this info and was able to partner with the Maps team to expand the usage for Bike-to-Work.
After getting the core technologies lined up, I started creating wireframes and mocks to UX test while the accounts were provisioned. After finalizing the designs I rolled up my sleeves and battled through the undocumented mess that MapKit JS was. I created a working demo and then quickly expanded the tool to be production ready.
A Great Outcome
The Bike-to-Work Day app is the culmination of many late nights of designing, UX testing, developing, and securing, however it was all worth it when it blew away everyone that used it. This app was also the first application to fully utilize MapKit JS outside of the iCloud Org – even going as far as providing direct feedback for the public launch of the API at WWDC the next year.
The app was a vast improvement in all aspects: From the ease of entering in a biker's data, and the security of storing it with end-to-end encryption in Apple's data centers, to the prevention of internal data leaks by using MapKit JS instead of Google Maps. The Bike-to-Work Day app was expanded in 2018, and reviewed for expansion to every Apple campus. Overall, the app was a major success for everyone involved.
My Roles
Product Designer
Engineer
Partners
EHS Team
Apple Wellness
Apple Maps
Platforms
Web