---
title: "Lumatic case study — Kwirita"
description: "Lumatic City Maps, walking and transit directions in photographs of the street. Redesign of the app for iOS and Android, plus the marketing and developer sites."
url: "https://kwirita.com/work/lumatic/"
---

# Lumatic

Lumatic City Maps, walking and transit directions in photographs of the street. Redesign of the app for iOS and Android, plus the marketing and developer sites.

Plate V. *Rain*.

- **Years**: 2012–2013
- **Role**: Founding product designer
- **Setup**: San Francisco company; I worked from Singapore
- **Scope**: Mobile app redesign (iOS and Android), marketing site, developer site
- **Platform**: iOS, Android, web

## The company

By late 2011 Lumatic was working on getting around a city on foot. It announced an $800,000 seed round in February 2012. Its app, Lumatic City Maps, showed a route as a sequence of photographs, with the landmarks and places along the way, for walking and public transit.

When Apple Maps launched with iOS 6 on September 19, 2012, without transit directions, Lumatic City Maps was one of the third-party routing apps that filled the gap.

## The work

I joined in June 2012 as founding product designer, after the company had become Lumatic. I worked from Singapore. I led the redesign of Lumatic City Maps for iOS and Android, and designed the company’s marketing and developer websites.

## What carried over

Build on the platform’s own parts. I used pre-built libraries and UI patterns wherever they fit, and saved my effort for the few details a pedestrian app had to get right. A first version should not start with custom work.

## Sources

- [TechCrunch, February 5, 2012](https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/05/lumatic-800000/)
- [Apple, What's New in iOS 6](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/releasenotes/General/WhatsNewIniOS/Articles/iOS6.html)
- [BizTech Magazine, September 2012](https://biztechmagazine.com/article/2012/09/get-bus-6-public-transit-apps-ios-6)

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Write early, while the names and screens can still change. A few lines are enough: what it does, who it’s for, how far along you are. I reply within two working days, Manila time.

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---

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