While working at Realia, the app I was creating needed a map viewer so a user could see which realtors had sold properties in their area (so you could judge if they would do a good job selling your home). Initially I used Google Maps for this. From a user perspective, Google Maps is pretty good. From a programmer perspective it was really awful to work with. So I switched to Mapbox. It's better. And it has an Elm package too. Still not great though. So I decided to make my own map viewer written in Elm. I made a proof of concept for the vector tile decoding over the 2022 winter break (the map viewer would still be relying on the Mapbox server for data) and then in 2023 summer I convinced my boss (Sam) to let finish the rest during work time.

Later when I started working at Ambue my new boss (Stephen) expressed interest in using the map viewer I had created in Elm for viewing homes that belonged to our client's portfolios. I got permission from Sam to open source the map viewer so it could use on at Ambue.