Six Years Perfecting Maps on watchOS
Summary
David Smith chronicles a six-year quest to deliver a best-in-class watchOS map experience, culminating in Pedometer++ 8. He describes moving from server-rendered maps to a SwiftUI-native rendering engine, iterating on UI design for tiny screens, and collaborating on a custom basemap and Liquid Glass visuals. He also explains why MapKit was avoided in favor of greater configurability and performance, and shares final design choices that deliver a native, usable mapping experience on Apple Watch.