The Challenge
Condé Nast Traveller engaged Imano to develop a series of iPhone App City Guides, starting with guides for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome. The purpose of the apps was to provide a one-stop guide for the city, helping users to become city insiders – not just tourists. The app needed to be a useful tool that both endorsed the high level Condé Nast Traveller brand and embraced the editorial tone of voice - whilst displaying over 500 places of interest in an easily navigable fashion.
Our Strategy
During the initial planning stages the application’s style was characterised as a ‘fun tool’. We defined the application as ‘An exclusive, designer, editorially led, city guide for the discerning traveller’. This statement of intent was cross-referenced at each stage to ensure the project remained on brand, and on target. Design planning to form an enjoyable user journey was paramount in the initial stages. This ensured the customer experience was smooth and intuitive, even though there was an immense amount of available content within the application. The app was broken up into distinct colour coded sections for each category. The various navigation options allowed users to negotiate their way around the city by neighbourhood, activity or establishment. Augmented reality technology was employed for a visual representation of search results and as a navigation tool – with all maps available offline to avoid data roaming charges.
The Results
The Condé Nast Traveller City Guides have regularly featured in the app store and have garnered an impressive amount of positive media attention. Most importantly, the user reviews have been complimentary and the download figures are increasing.
“What’s impressive is their Augmented Reality functionality. Simply point your phone in a
direction and it will bring up images of nearby attractions, which you can narrow down by type.
You can also use GPS to pull up venue locations on a map”
www.mashable.com
“Condé Nast Traveller has designed a guide to all that’s chic and stylish in the fashion capital of
the world. Choose from a host of fashion insiders as they reveal their favourite of the city’s sights
from Paul Smith’s essential fromagerie to Angela Missoni’s pick of the most stylish hotels.”
Vogue
“There’s no need for a guidebook, or even a map with these brilliant city guides”
The Daily Mail
“The format is fantastic, with obviously a great deal of thought and care having gone into the way the
app reacts and the intuitiveness of the design.”
www.theiphoneappreview.com
