ABOUT

The Urban World app visualises the economic power of cities – past, present and future. Based on more than five years of research by MGI into the growth of cities in emerging markets, Urban World allows you to compare GDP, population and household income for more than 2,600 cities worldwide. The primary purpose of the app is for MGI to support business discussions with their clients on future trends around global cities.

The challenge:
MGI approached us with a spreadsheet of over 50,000 data points and a vision to turn their research into an user-friendly app. Our biggest challenge was to make all the data easily accessible to the user whilst keeping the interface intuitive and uncluttered.

Prototyping the user experience
Working closely with MGI we helped define the functionality and mapped out various user journeys. Following on from a fully wire-framed prototype we developed a visual language of dark blue tones and clusters of light, taking inspiration from NASA nighttime photography. To contrast the dark blues we introduced a bright color palette to display the data.

A phased approach
We took a phased approach to the development of the app, launching the iPad app for iOS and Android first followed by mobile versions. Further development involved extending the app to allow MGI to upload additional client-specific data to a password protected environment. Client sales data can be viewed in the app, alongside predicted growth of GDP and population, making it a very powerful business tool.

Features include a search function to move quickly to a specific city, country, or region. Users can add locations to their ‘favourites’ and toggle between current data and predicted data for the next decade. A timeline spanning 1 CE to 2025 was also created to show the earth’s shifting economic center of gravity and GDP through time.