The Mapist Debuts As New Interactive Wayfinding Option

November 18, 2019 by Dave Haynes

Another wayfinding/mapping option has emerged in the marketplace – this one a collaboration between software developers in Spain and Pakistan.

I had a note from Nabeel Salem, a Pakistani developer who has been doing software and game development for the last 10 years. Earlier in the year, a developer gig came up for building an interactive wayfinding solution for a shopping mall. As often happens in signage, developers who deliver a finished application realize they also have built a product they can re-market, which in this case has been called The Mapist.

So what’s different from what’s already in the marketplace?

Saleem says the The Mapist was developed in the game engine application Unity 3D and is a fully 3D environment. (Not sure that’s all that unusual, but I’m not deeply versed in mapping applications). It also has voice input.

The output is cross platform – with an .exe application for PCs, or WebGL for browser-based playout.

Remote management would be through third-party applications like Teamviewer or Anydesk, and text details can be updated outside the core applications by doing stuff like changing data in a mapped spreadsheet cell.

The startup is working on a barcode to smartphone feature to take directions with you.

The first two projects using The Mapist are just going in for clients.