Mapping The Glasshouse in Newcastle with Waymap

Last month, Design Age Institute’s team travelled to Newcastle for Waymap‘s second user workshop at The Glasshouse Theatre. Waymap is the world’s only navigation app that guides you both indoors and outdoors, with no signal required. Earlier this year, Waymap secured funding via Design Age Institute’s Transport Pathfinder Innovation Programme, which responded to a growing need for transport options that are safe, affordable, sustainable and desirable for an ageing population.

The session focussed on user-feedback. Having previously been taught to download and use the Waymap navigations application, a cohort of a dozen local users in later life spent two weeks putting the technology to the test. With the use-case of the app being clear to the majority if this cohort, the Waymap team spent an afternoon devising opportunities to make the service more accessible, useful and enjoyable.

With the advent on better mapping technologies, and with the continued limitations on staff in public areas, Waymap’s team hope to increase the independence of older users in public forums by putting valuable information in their pockets. It was encouraging to see so many users enjoy the product and integrate it into their daily lives.