Ever felt lost inside a giant mall? A Filipino-made app is changing the game. Duon Wayfinding, founded by Dan Angeles, helps mallgoers navigate their way through complex layouts using real-time, GPS-like indoor mapping—making errands, shopping, and leisure time more efficient.
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Malls serve a big role in the everyday lives of many Filipinos as a one-stop shop for all their needs and wants, from errands and groceries to hangouts and unwinding leisure. With malls being located everywhere in the Philippines, navigating these places sometimes gets confusing, tiring, and time-consuming, especially considering the size of malls in the country.
Instead of getting lost finding a mall directory, mall floor plans can now be accessed through the Duon Wayfinding app. Through Duon, shoppers can access real-time indoor mall navigation with a map showing the overview of the mall and a tab featuring categories for points of interest such as restaurants, fashion, toilets, entrances and exits, groceries, kids parks, pharmacies, elevators, and many more. After choosing a category, the app will display a list of stalls available in that mall and their locations.
Shopping is made easier with Duon Wayfinding as it guides users to destined stalls complete with displayed distance and time. 🛒🛍️
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To get directions towards their desired stall, shoppers can identify their point of origin and select their desired destination in a mall, similar to the function of Waze for street navigation. This will then show shoppers the fastest route to their desired stall and even display the distance between two places and the estimated time to get there.
Duon Wayfinding utilizes 3D maps with indoor positioning technology and a navigation pointer that follows the user around. “It automatically detects where the users are… meaning, it follows you. The navigation pointer follows you as you walk around the establishments,” Angeles told Spot.ph. “At any given point in time, you know where you are,” he specified. It also helps persons with disabilities by providing guides for areas with ramps and elevators.
To stay updated, Duon company deploys account managers once or twice a month for regular updates.
Currently, the application only shows guides for SM North Edsa—the second largest mall in the country—and can be downloaded through the Play Store for Android and the Apple Store for iOS users. The app also functions even during off-site navigation and without an internet connection. Duon was locally founded and developed by Filipino Dan Angeles, CEO of Duon Technologies, in 2018.
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According to Angeles, they aim to provide maps for all SM and Robinsons malls in the Philippine capital by the end of the year. “We’re looking to deploy in the major SM malls in Metro Manila, and we’re currently coordinating with them to expand the partnership,” Angeles mentioned in a video interview with BusinessWorld on Feb. 13. He also adds that “We’re also right now discussing a partnership with Robinsons Malls, so throughout the year, we’ll also be deploying in Robinsons Malls.”
Angeles mentions that the size of malls ranges from 20 to 60 hectares, which makes it quite a hassle for Filipinos to navigate through, which inspired him to develop Duong Wayfinding. He shares his own experience in 2018 wherein he constantly got lost in SM Megamall and found information in Google to be useless as it was outdated. “Every time I was in a mall, I would always get lost. So, I told my life partner that someone should make a Waze for malls,” Angeles specified to Spot.ph.
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To keep the app free of charge for users, Duon Wayfinding strives for vouchers and coupons through brand partnerships. The company is also currently coordinating with local governments in hopes of including local landmarks and businesses on Duon.
Aside from malls, Duon also envisions itself providing the same service but for different industries in the future that have high foot traffic, such as hotels, casinos, transport hubs, airports, universities, and theme parks. “For now, we really want to focus on the navigation feature because Duon Wayfinding is, at its core, a navigation platform,” Angeles mentions. “Hopefully, we’ll start to make navigation fun for Filipinos little by little,” he adds.
Visit their website at duon.ph.
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