Milan Subway Map

For the last week or so, I've been working on an app for browsing a map of subway and suburban trains in Milan. Well, here's the lite version and the one without adds. Now, let's have a short postmortem.

What went well

I managed to get hold of a subway map in a vector format. I only had to add the missing purple line and make some modifications, so it could be used on Android. Thanks to that, the quality of the map is very hight and it can be zoomed in indefinitely without the loss of any detail. Isn't that cool!

I also had a chance to practice my icon design skills and this time I'm really proud of myself. Just look at the color choice, the mild gradient and the simple shape of the letter M. Hell, I'm getting better and better at it.

What went wrong

Although the idea behind the app was pretty neat, I failed to check Google Play for similar ones. It turns out, that there are a couple apps which do almost the same thing. Their usability may not be as good, but they add some other features, like a detailed map of the suburban network or a satellite view.

Conclusion

SVG images are great! They take little space, look good even when zoomed in and you don't have to provide a separate version for each screen density. I'll definitely write the next post about how to use them.

Next time though, I have to be more careful when choosing an idea to implement. It's better to commit an hour or two checking Google Play for similar apps than to loose days/weeks to create something utterly unoriginal and with a strong competition.