Mio Spirit -- The building of a revolutionary interface

When the Mio R&D team set out to develop a new navigation software interface, they started by asking a few important questions:

1. What is the future of car navigation?
2. How can we get people to take their devices out of their cars and integrate them into their lives?
3. How can we improve the user experience?

To answer these questions Mio conducted user research in the US, Germany and the UK. They met and spoke to a wide range of people about their navigational needs, concerns and behaviors, showed them a selection of current GPS devices and documented their responses.

From this research, Mio developed user profiles that segmented the market, identified opportunities for the brand and helped inspire design teams to create products that targeted the needs of real users. And, most importantly, creating the template for an all new user-centric interface that was more intuitive and required fewer clicks than anything available to-date. Making it faster and easier to find your destination and access the wealth of valuable information available on the device. The development of Spirit challenged many of the old ways of thinking for both customers and staff alike. 

Once the interface was finalized, the next challenge was to design and build the architecture that the interface would be built upon; especially the communication and integration between each of the features. Since each feature of the interface was treated as a standalone application with its own map and not related to anything else, they still had to be stitched together so they would appear as a seamless interface.  And, as with all aspects of Spirit, striving for the ultimate customer experience.

As with all software design projects this one faced many challenges, but we’re confident we’ve created a new standard for the portable GPS market.

Mio Spirit is featured on the new Moov S-series GPS models. Supporting Mio’s reputation as an innovative, forward thinking company.

Get More From Your Travels…For Less

We all look forward to vacation travel but let’s face it, hitting the road can be stressful. The new Mio Moov S-series models are designed to help users plan, travel and explore more easily and cost-effectively. Mio has launched the new Moov S-series models equipped with the breakthrough Mio Spirit Navigation Software, fulfilling users’ needs throughout the whole journey: from advanced planning to driving and exploring their surroundings. With the right tools to plan your trip and guide you on the road, travel becomes a lot less stressful and a lot more fun.  

Planning ahead has never been easier
Mio Moov S-series users can save valuable time planning ahead using a variety of cool features.  For example, you can select locations on Google™ Maps and transfer them directly to “My Places” on your Mio device for easy route planning. And, the included MioMore Desktop 2 PC software also provides PC route planning functions and NavPix™ Photo Navigation, which allows users to download free geo-encoded photos from sites like Flickr™ and then transfer them directly to their Mio device for navigation. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

   

Act like a local
It’s all about knowing what’s available and how to get there.  Moov S-series owners can now use the new “Explore” function to find and navigate to scores of local points of interest. Different from the traditional POI search in other PND’s where you need to know the actual destination name first to find a place to explore, the innovative Explore Mode™ allows you to browse the map and see all nearby POIs at a glance. Just click on any spot on the map. The POIs expand out in an easy to read and intuitive way, making it fast and simple to find the places you want to visit.

 

The new Keyword Search makes searching for POIs even more intuitive. Users can enter keywords in a variety of categories and even combine keywords, like places and city names, for more specific search results.

Make your travel dollars go further
In addition to Fuel Price Search which helps you find the cheapest gas prices in the area, the Moov S-series features the new Economical Routing function, calculating the most fuel-efficient route with the fewest turns and traffic lights. Users can even tabulate their fuel consumption with the Mileage Reporter on the MioMore Desktop 2 software which retrieves the mileage data from your device and calculates the fuel economy for you.

The Moov S-series also includes features like Lane Guidance, which prepares you in advance to be in the proper lane for upcoming turns, and Speed Limit Warnings, designed to get you to your destination faster and safer, taking some of the stress out of driving. 

Get yourself a new Moov S-series portable GPS and you’ll find your journeys full of new experiences and discoveries…not stress and headaches.  And, isn’t that what a vacation should be?