Finally a Transparent Real App for National Parks
In a time when people want transparency, finally, an App that tells you the real story
Our new world
It is a different world than it was 10 years ago. Many people travel places not for the experience but for the iconic photos and selfies they can take. It is a new world of bloggers, influencers, filters, photoshop, and social media.
In Horseshoe Bend alone, tourism has risen from about 4,000 visitors a year to 2.2 million — that’s over 4,000 in a single day.
Zion National Park is only 15 miles in diameter but welcomes 4.5 million visitors a year with lines that are hundreds of people long for hours throughout the day. The main attraction at Zion: a river hike known as the “Narrows.”
My Objective? To inform people what they are getting into, at the same time, create a fun interactive experience for my users.
The Real Zion’s National Park App
I started the process by coming up with sections and interactions I wanted to add to this App. I was trying to focus on a transparent App that has a lot of unique interactive experiences to keep people coming back.
Different Sections
Cover Page — A national park image will be changing from one season to the next every 3 seconds for an interesting cover. Using a parallax effect would work also. Changing this image often will also keep people engaged.
Expectations vs Reality — This section is showing reality vs. the many filtered pictures out there.
- Touch the Instagram image and it changes to the real picture. There is nothing worse than traveling and being disappointed because of the filtered fake experiences you were expecting.
- I also will be adding an area for others to submit their own images to keep it updated and real all the time. This is an area to let people interact with the App.
Hazard and Closure updates — Using API, I have a section to see what are the current warnings and dangers in the park.
- Check the current flood warnings, closed areas, and daily dangers. This keeps the know before you go theme and changes daily for people to check.
Hiking guides — The Hiking Guide is an informative section for those planning hikes in the park. This area is one that would be easy to add the 360 VR experience to so people can really see what the hikes will be like. Flyovers with drones are also a great interaction that can be added to this area.
Kids Corner — Having an interactive area for kids is important for a Park App.
- I liked the idea of brushing the screen to uncover the image. This can be done with Hype.
- The second activity is having 360 images and finding items in the pictures.
- Badges can be awarded when items are found. Kids love awards and it would be like a scavenger hunt
VR and 360 Tours of the different highlights in the park.
- Tap an area and see a 360 image to interact with and discover.
- This can be more interesting with pop-ups to show the highlights and descriptions.
- I was just there and took a couple of 360 images that actually work on my prototype. Try it out!
Lessons Learned
- Finding real is hard in this new world. Many online images are altered and many have the wrong park name.
- With spotty internet in the park, we need a solution to use the app when there.
- I am still figuring out what is possible. I would like to know if things could be added to 360 images for a scavenger hunt.
- I would like to do research testing to see how people react to a real transparent site. Do they want real or do they like the filtered world?
A working prototype of my App, try it out!
A prototype of my App https://invis.io/W8ZQUXCG5FA#/437626565_iPhone_8
Derek Balkman is a student in the Web Design and Development program at Utah Valley University, Orem Utah, studying Interaction & Design. The following article relates to (Digital Publishing) in the (DGM 2270 course) and representative of the skills learned.
