Lancaster firm Hotfoot Design appointed by  Ordnance Survey for UX design project

Hotfoot Design has been appointed by Ordnance Survey (OS), Britain’s national mapping service, to deliver a major UX design project focussing on improving how business and public sector audiences engage with its trusted and accurate location data.

Ordnance Survey (OS) has been mapping Great Britain for more than two centuries, evolving from traditional cartography to cutting-edge geospatial technology. Today, OS maintains the National Geographic Database (NGD), the most detailed and authoritative representations of the nation’s geography, containing over 600 million features. 

This dynamic database is updated around 30,000 times every day to ensure accuracy and currency. It underpins critical operations across a wide range of sectors – including financial services, utilities, telecommunications, transport, and emergency services – helping businesses and public bodies make informed decisions.

OS data has become an integral part of everyday life, with research indicating that people interact with location data an average of 42 times per day, whether through navigation apps, online services, or home deliveries.

The project forms a central part of Ordnance Survey’s wider digital transformation and brand repositioning, reflecting its evolution from a heritage mapmaker to a trusted, data-first organisation powering innovation, infrastructure, and decision-making across the country.

Hotfoot’s UX work will enhance product discovery, simplify complex user journeys, and bring greater clarity to the ways Ordnance Survey supports sectors including government, utilities, telecoms and finance. The redesigned experience will strengthen OS’s commercial positioning and make it easier for users to explore, understand, and integrate OS Data into their work.

Leanne Upson, Chief Marketing Officer at Ordnance Survey, said: “This project marks an important step in making our trusted location data more accessible and intuitive for the organisations that depend on it every day. By investing in user experience design, we aim to further unlock OS data for both existing and new users through an inspiring and engaging online journey. We’re confident this work will help users easily find, access, and work with OS data, delivering real value to their organisations.”

Julia Carefoot, Creative and UX Lead at Hotfoot Design, said, “We’re incredibly proud to partner with Ordnance Survey on this important phase of their digital journey. Ordnance Survey data plays a crucial role in how Britain operates, from emergency response to infrastructure and planning. Our goal is to design an experience that makes the scale and impact of that data instantly clear and accessible, while positioning OS as the leading authority in location insight.”

This project builds on Hotfoot’s growing portfolio of digital transformation and UX work with organisations that combine innovation, heritage, and national importance, aligning technology, clarity, and design to deliver measurable impact.