We saw a ton of apps in the app store that were simple and so-so executions of public transportation for New York City. We also saw a few that were giving money for information that normally would be free. Most importantly, all these apps were not covering all the public transportation in one app. Being New York residents ourselves, we wanted something better and we had a feeling a few other New Yorkers would agree.
We researched and called up all the major New York City public transit companies. From the MTA to the Port Authority, we managed to obtain all the maps and then take them to create a dynamic mapping platform that we used to build NYCMate on. We re-thought the way the layout of an app like this should look and feel. The map was the hero, so that's where we started.
Since launching the NYC Mate app in Summer of 2010, the application sky rocketed to the front page of the Apple iTunes Store and combined with the Android app that we launched as well, we acquired 470,783 users in just the first 6 months.
From there, we wanted it to be clear that you could use the app in a variety of ways including: locating yourself via GPS on a particular map, getting directions to and from different stations, and checking service updates. We laid out a custom tabbing system that allowed the user to customize the application for their needs, depending on what maps they used the most.