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IT
PollenNav mobile app maps the city by what you can breathe, not just where you can walk
['Yani Shi']
designboom | architecture & design magazine
PollenNav navigation app maps lower-pollen routes in the cityMost navigation apps optimize for time, distance, or traffic.
PollenNav asks a different question: which route will least likely leave you struggling to breathe?
Shi spent a stretch of 2021 dismissing her own allergy symptoms until they escalated into asthma, coughing through nights she couldn’t sleep.
Where conventional pollen forecasts stop at a single city-wide number, PollenNav works at the scale people actually move through: the block.
The work has been recognized with the iF Design Award 2026, the Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design, a Silver at the New York Product Design Award, and the European Product Design Award.