How can I represent the proximity and position of users while respecting their privacy?

While working on an app to find professionals, I faced an obstacle that needed to be solved. One of the fundamentals of the app was to convey a sense of proximity and availability of professionals for immediate service. To achieve this, it was necessary to show users the professionals around their location in real-time. However, this presented an issue: no one wants to download an app that tracks people in real-time, as it poses a severe privacy issue. Therefore, positioning on a map was ruled out.

Using cards in a list format, sorted by distance, wouldn't have created the same feeling of availability and immediacy. For example, think of a project like Uber, where users can see how well the vehicles around them are displayed on the screen.

To solve this problem, I came up with a compass interface that shows the approximate location of each professional, arranged by orientation and distance from the user. The compass orientation changes by moving the phone to another direction, displaying more professionals. This stimulates the exploration and discovery experience while making it more user-friendly.

This type of compass interface evokes the feeling of proximity while maintaining the professional user's privacy since it is complicated to track someone who has an approximate location.

Let me know what you think of this solution in the comments and give it a thumbs up!