Products

We're still pre-launch - you can't see our products just yet. But here's what's coming:

SpiffyMap announces the first fully customisable web map.

Your website is the most public expression of your brand. Everything about it is carefully designed to fit into your branding... except the map of where your business actually is! And that's probably on the single most visited page on your site, the "Contact Us" page!

That's because the current generation of web maps are so inflexible. They use data designed for sat nav systems, not for people. Some of them now allow you to change the colours, but the change has to be for all roads or features of a specific type, at all scales (and you don't get any choice of what scales appear, and by the way, north has to be "up" whether you like it that way or not).

In fact, all you can really do with these maps is add points of interest to them - those little marker things. And you need to learn programming to do that.

Eliminate the “base map”

The reason existing web maps are so inflexible is that they only provide a “base map” for you to add to. But what makes maps useful, in the real world, is what they leave out as much as what they show. In most web maps there's far too much detail. But with a fully customised map from SpiffyMap, you can eliminate the features that aren't relevant to you. Or just make them fade into the background with a pale colour. You can highlight the road you're on in a strong colour, select the surrounding roads of the same classification and make them pale, and turn off the nearby pubs and shops lest your visitors get distracted! Choose any starting scale you like, and whatever angle of rotation works best to illustrate what you want to show. It will make your map more useful to your audience, and enhance your brand by matching your brand values and colourways rather than looking like a tacked-on afterthought.

You can design a slightly different version for printing - perhaps eliminating big blocks of colour and increasing contrast. You can use it inside your intranet or paid-access website, unlike those search-engine maps. And there won't be any advertising on your map - now or in the future!

Graphic designers have been doing those things with maps for a long time, but SpiffyMap makes it easy. Maybe you'll do it yourself and save paying for several hours of a graphic designer's time. Or maybe you are a graphic designer, web designer, creative agency or map design consultancy - in which case use SpiffyMap's product to cut development time and offer lower quotes!

You can design a slightly different version for printing - perhaps eliminating big blocks of colour and increasing contrast. You can use it inside your intranet or paid-access website, unlike those search-engine maps. And there won't be any advertising on your map - now or in the future.

How we do it

The innovative idea of fully customisable web maps is made possible by innovative software developed in-house by SpiffyMap. You can learn more about how we have achieved this if you're technically-minded.

If not, rest assured that our technology works on all browsers (back to, and including, IE6 which you're probably still seeing around 10-15% of your visitors using). It doesn't require any browser plugin, since there is no plugin available on all browsers. It just works. And no knowledge of any programming language is needed at any stage - it's just a single tag that you include in your web page/s.

Get it early

This product isn't for sale yet, but we are pleased to announce that our beta-testing programme will begin in August. It's free to join and if you're chosen, you'll be able to keep your map for free once the programme ends and we make our software available to paying customers. If you're interested, please drop us an email to beta@spiffymap.com letting us know what you'd use a fully customisable map to show.

Finally, web-based maps can be as well-designed as the rest of the web.