Nettside: http://vandre.bitballoon.com/
AHO DESIGN: GK3 Interaction Design Course
Application Project - Project, Fall 2017
By: @eilarishovd, @martharisn, @eirunnmkvalnes and @hkvilla
Vandre is our Fall 2017 main project delivery. It is an app developed to give information and educate people about Oslo´s history. Through the app, our users can “go back in time” and experience what we now see as milestones when looking at city development.
For most people, this kind of information can be a little dry - to read and try to imagine how the city, environment and society were shaped before. Therefore we connected the information with fitting photographs to the different scenes, both in time and location. The app is based on an idea where the user is guided through a selected route, that is linked up in a chronological order. That way the user will not only learn about the different areas but also feel proximity and presence to the changes that have occurred there.
The app is based on coordinates; images and information (both text and sound) are placed on specific locations. When opening Vandre, you first meet the home page showing the 4 current active tour guides and an archive function. Every tour has information both about what you can experience there, direction and tips about things to do in the area (coffee etc.) The archive function lets the user go back and walk the tour digitally for looking back after walking it
When selecting a guide, you will get direction to the main area selected. When entering the area, you get a notification before the app gives you directions to point number one (chronologically). When entering point one, you get access to both the information there, as text or soundtrack, and images that are synced to the actual place. You will then get directions to the next point and so on till the route is finished.
Early in the design process, we learned that people in our user group were mainly going for a walk in the weekends. Therefore, we made the routes short (20 min estimated) to encourage “Vandring” in the weekdays as well. We included a notification that would be sent out on Saturday and Sunday mornings to remind that “today is a good day to “Vandre”!”.
The four different tour guides showed at the main page are interchangeable, they appear for four weeks at a time. This gives the app “life”, it makes the concept more exiting in the long run. It basically means that you have to complete the tour before it expires. If you dont, it will be replaced by a new guide (appears uncertain eventually in the future).
Another detail in the app is our share function. This function lets the users share and listen together while exploring- by connection through bluetooth. The app also has settings as a third main function.
The layout is designed to give a lively perception. As mentioned earlier this would also encourage to learn more about this kind of information. Our main goals was to educate about historical changes in a way that lets the user memorize the information with images, presence and illustrations- which is something I think we succeeded with.