Memory Compass
Master's Thesis • 2019 — 2022
An Apple Watch app that lets you search for past location moments in a given direction and distance, pulling from your Google Maps Timeline.
My Roles
Interaction Design
Software Prototyping
UI Design
Collaborators
• Jordan White | project lead• William Odom | supervisor
• Nico Brand | UI design
Outcomes
• CHI '23 | Presented 1st author conference paper in Hamburg, Germany• HCI Masters '22 | part of my thesis
• DIS '20 | Published 1st author abstract
Research Framing
It’s now possible to continually record
every place you ever go, with your smartphone and services like
Google Maps Timeline.
I was curious....how could location history data be used to design a
mobile app that shows location memories in relation to your current location?
Google Maps Timeline
JSON export of Google Maps Timeline data
Initial Ideas & Prototypes
First Full Concept
UI Explorations
Protoype with Real Data
I was able to test the experience with my actual location data with Python + SQLite + Apple Maps
First, I imported my Google Timeline data (JSON) into a SQLite database.
I then wrote a O(n) query using the Haversine formula.
For the output I simply had the Python script open Apple Maps on my Mac and drop a pin at the location.
→ This setup let me quickly test, with my data, the core question:
Does seeing a pin in from my past, in relation to my current locatin, prompt reminiscent experiences?
To my enjoyment, it did!
