---
date: 2019-02-24
modified_at: 2019-03-13
tags: [entrepreneurship, programming]
description: A startup idea for a maps app that provides navigation based on places you've already discovered, using human-friendly directions to help you learn the city instead of becoming dependent on GPS.
---
# Human Directions: A startup idea

There should be a Maps app that helps you remember What you already Discovered
in a City. Locations you’ve been to get added to the map and streets you go
through regularly get added. After using this for a couple weeks, the
representation of a city gets based on where you go and where you don’t go. This
can be done by using background location. This gives a graphical representation
that’s way more useful and way easier to wrap your head around since you’ve used
the streets and been to the places you see on the map. Then, the navigation can
be based on what you know and it can navigate you to something like: “go to
muntplein via scheldestraat, then after TQ, take the third left, and your
destination is on number 5.

Human directions 🧭

 * Especially useful for cycling and walking. By car and public transport it’s
   often harder because of bus stops and stuff but having navigation is also
   easier.
   • it’s good for humans because they don’t become dependent upon their
   cellphones because they gradually learn things themselves and the system
   knows this.
   • system could use street signs to say things like ‘follow the signs to
   center until you reach muntplein’
   • System should use canals and striking points as guidance like ‘follow
   Amstel Canal until you reach scheldestraat’
   • This system could also be used on dumb phones 📞 through a phone number
   with a bot. You just give starting and endpoint and the bot walks you through
   it step by step, you say next step. But since the dumb phone doesn’t track
   your location it’s harder to know what you already know well.
   • Corrective directions could say nothing except on the start, and then, when
   you go wrong, correct you and say: three times left is right! (If you’re a
   man, always act like you know the way)

Human Maps 🗺

 * Cool map you can print out after a year that tells you where you’ve been in a
   city which is great to show friends to share your interpretation of the city