Modern developer kit
for maps

Background

Google Maps’ data and intelligence is used by over 5 million apps and websites by powering maps, geolocation, and real time logistics services across industries and dewvices. Customers include Airbnb down to your local grocery chain and last mile delivery services.

Problem

As an early leader in the space, it has focused on enterprise users’ needs but early stage today who are attracted by ease of use and predictable pricing. For most customers, using a map or geolocation services is usually not in their core competency and often a nice-to-have. We identified the need to make a solution that was easier to implement, configure, and maintain.

Solution

Component libraries are common building blocks of modern sites and apps and we had a few to offer already. They were the interactive map or place search autocomplete. We wanted to replicate that success with some of our However popular those I was able to update place autocomplete then add place details, place results, and elevation components to leverage all rich real world place data available. I scoped the visual and functional customizations for common use cases that reduce cost to implement, customize, and maintain.

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This UI took about 300 lines of code to acheive and would take over a thousand without this UI kit. The place list and place details components are not yet ready for production, and are shown with default Google Maps styling that will likely continue to get refined.

Can of worms

During this project many issues arose that were somewhat novel to me and even Google. I sought advice from individuals within the greater Google Maps team and others around the company, like the Material Design team and Android teams, who have faced similar problems. Unfortunately they're difficult to visualize due to IP security.

⚠️ Challenge or risk	🧩 Solution or mitigation
Convince stakeholders that adopting a modified Material design token system was forward thinking and scalable	Created proof of concepts that demonstrated the range of visual customization
Concerns of attributing data to Google Maps when displayed next to competitors	Worked with Legal and Google Maps leads to play test and define branding and attribution requirements
Creating a flexible customization system targeting 90% of customer’s needs	Mocked up components in dozens of real apps content, websites and brand guidelines for our target customers
The commonly used place autocomplete menu was getting an overhaul but not aligned with our project	Negotiated to expand scope to include the place autocomplete component for maximum cohesion in the offering

Team

UXR: Kelly Elston
Product: Matt Brightman
TL: Andrew Mackowski
UX Writing: Michelle Golden
Developer relations: Angela Yu

Stakeholders
Google Maps (consumer) UX, Legal, Support, & Go-to-market teams

Google Maps Platform