Inspiration
We wanted to create a way for people to explore the world through a more interactive and personalized experience. Traditional maps are great for navigation, but we saw an opportunity to make them more creative, social, and collaborative. This inspired us to build Atlas, a platform where users can customize their own maps, discover interesting places, and share experiences with others in a shared space.
What it does
Atlas transforms maps into interactive spaces where users can explore locations, customize their map skins, and place pins to save meaningful places. Users can create and share maps with others, making it easier to discover locations and collaborate. Our shared map experience is designed to go beyond simply viewing places together by allowing users to organize pins, customize their shared spaces, and coordinate meetups. We envision features such as event pins with specific locations and times, attendance participation, and notes that help everyone know where to meet and what to expect.
How we built it
We built Atlas through an iterative development process, using AI-assisted development to help translate our ideas into working features. We focused on creating an interactive mapping experience with customizable visuals, 3D buildings, location pins, and shared spaces. Throughout development, we refined our prompts, adjusted the interface, and worked on connecting different features so that the application would feel cohesive. We also prioritized making the shared map experience more useful by developing ideas for collaborative pin management, personalization, and interactive functionality.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was bringing our creative vision to life while maintaining a functional and intuitive user interface. We struggled with domain setup and configuration, making sure our application could be accessed and function properly through the web. Integrating APIs was another major hurdle, as connecting external services and getting their data to display correctly within Atlas required troubleshooting, testing, and refining how different systems communicated with one another. We also faced challenges getting map elements, 3D buildings, pins, and other information to populate the screen correctly. Balancing individual customization with collaboration added another layer of complexity, especially when users needed to share the same map while maintaining their own preferences. These challenges pushed us to adapt quickly, solve problems as a team, and continuously refine our approach to turn our ideas into a working experience.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud of turning our ideas into a working concept that combines interactive maps, customization, and collaboration. We successfully explored how AI-assisted development could help us build and refine features while bringing our vision to life. We’re especially proud of our customizable map experience, including custom pins, 3D buildings, and shared maps. We also developed a clearer vision for how Atlas can become more than a map by helping people organize locations, coordinate plans, and create experiences together.
What we learned
Throughout building Atlas, we learned how to turn our ideas into a functional application by using AI effectively, refining prompts, and iterating on our designs. We gained a deeper understanding of UI/UX design, API integration, and how different features work together to create a seamless user experience. Implementing custom map pins and shared maps also taught us the importance of collaboration and making information accessible to users. One of our biggest takeaways was learning that building a successful product takes more than a good idea. It requires clear communication, problem-solving, and continuous testing and refinement.
What's next for Atlas
Our next step is to make Atlas’s shared spaces more useful, interactive, and customizable, turning them into places where people can do more than just explore a map together. We want users to create meetup pins with specific locations and times, allowing everyone in a shared space to view the details and indicate whether they’re attending. We also plan to introduce notes on pins so users can share important information about where to meet, when to arrive, and what to do. Alongside these collaborative features, we want to expand customization within shared maps and continue polishing every aspect of the experience, from the UI and 3D buildings to how information populates the screen and how reliably each feature functions. Ultimately, our goal is to make Atlas a seamless, personalized platform where people can explore places, coordinate plans, and create shared experiences together.
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