Derrick Blackwell-Hunt

01 / Selected work

Scenic Route: designing the interesting way there.

A mobile-first Paris walking product that balances destination, discovery, and the amount of extra time a person is willing to spend.

Product · Zero-to-one · GeospatialFunctional Capacitor-based Android app · Google Play internal testing

Product state

Fastest is easy to optimize. “Worth walking through” is not.

The central design decision was to make discovery an explicit routing choice and show the extra time it requires.

Fig. 01

Two evidenced product states

Scenic Route search screen with a Paris map, destination field, and route discovery call to action.
User-controlled view of the approved search and route-computation screens. Map attribution remains intact.

How I approached the work

Understand → Structure → Execute → Improve

01

Understand

Learn who is involved, what they need, and what limits the work.

02

Structure

Define the model, workflow, requirements, or plan.

03

Execute

Build the process, product, controls, and communication needed to deliver.

04

Improve

Test the result, use feedback, and fix what does not work.

The product decision

Four intentions, not one scenic slider.

The routing model separates the person optimizing for arrival from the person optimizing for discovery. Each mode changes intent, time tolerance, and product behavior without disguising the trade-off.

Fig. 02

Four-mode product model

IntentArrive with minimum delay
ConstraintNo extra-time tolerance
Product behaviorPrioritize travel time
Original portfolio reconstruction. Select a mode; the complete comparison remains available as text.
4routing modes
98curated points of interest
19POI categories

Decision system

From an intention to a defensible route.

The product must do more than draw a longer line. It generates plausible pedestrian alternatives, identifies a discovery corridor, evaluates relevant places, and respects the user’s time constraint.

Fig. 03

Routing decision flow

Begin with an explicit destination or an open exploration intent.

Original reconstruction of the product logic. Security-sensitive implementation details are omitted.
up to 3pedestrian-network alternatives evaluated
14 of 20Paris arrondissements represented
+188%POI dataset growth, 34 to 98

Product system

Build the experience and the trust boundary together.

Location products have a particular obligation: convenience cannot make data handling invisible. The system keeps routing credentials behind a versioned backend, validates requests, and treats location as ephemeral by default.

The public figure stays deliberately architectural. It explains responsibility without exposing credentials, repository detail, or defensive configuration that would create risk.

Fig. 04

Architecture and privacy boundaries

Mobile clientSearch · route mode · map stateForeground location · device-local preferences
Versioned backendValidation · proxy · response shapingCORS · payload limits · layered rate limits
ProvidersPedestrian routing · map tilesCredentials remain outside client bundles
  • No required account
  • Foreground-only location
  • GPS fixes not persisted by default
  • Explicit sharing
Original recreation. Static labels provide the full text equivalent.
5versioned API endpoints
5rate-limit layers
0provider credentials in client/native bundles

Execution system

Quality is part of the product definition.

I used written requirements, tests, provider checks, and release controls to make each build inspectable. AI assistance accelerated implementation; I retained control through acceptance criteria, code review, and automated checks.

Fig. 05

Quality pipeline

  1. 01Requirements
  2. 02Unit tests
  3. 03Browser E2E
  4. 04Provider smoke test
  5. 05CI gates
  6. 06Signed internal release
Original reconstruction of the verified development and release sequence.
160passing unit tests across 23 files
6deterministic browser E2E scenarios
4independent CI gates

Release state

Functional, testable, and honestly bounded.

Scenic Route is a functional Capacitor-based Android application distributed through Google Play internal testing. It is not presented as a public launch, a validated business, or an AI-powered consumer feature.

Next / from product systems to market systems

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