Landmark is a mobile app that provides users with pedestrian perspective pictures during navigation directions to help them find locations more easily and quickly. Most directions maps are focused on maps and driving, and don’t offer real information on landmarks and visual queues more geared towards walking. Urban cities are moving towards reducing the number of cars on the road, and there has been a big push and effort in several cities to increase their “walkability.” Navigation and direction apps need to take into account this shift in lifestyle, and cater to the visual world that pedestrians see while walking.
Landmark works by collecting open-source street level photos, and presenting the directions typed in by the user through a collection of pictures that guide the user in their journey by landmarks and images, which they can compare to their surroundings. Landmark doesn’t show any maps, focusing on the step-by-step path users will take. This interesting “map-less” kind of navigational geography may be increasingly present in our urbanized, non-driving world.
The Urban geography of our cities is a crucial area of advancement in our modern world, and Landmarks’s work to cater towards walkable city life is a commendable step towards green urbanism. The American Geographical Society’s Fall Symposium focuses on exploring our future in an urbanized world. Read more here!
Written by: Christopher Ewell, AGS on July 15, 2015