About the project

Spotly is a mobile app for travelers that helps them find nearby sights, listen to audio guides about them and build a collection of AR souvenirs from the places they've visited. It's a travel guide, a tour guide and a small game mechanic in one app.

The challenge

Travel apps are often either overloaded with text or boil down to a list of addresses on a map. We needed to design a product that works on the spot: it shows what's interesting nearby, lets you listen to a story about a place without interrupting your walk, and gives you a reason to visit the next point. That's where the idea of AR souvenirs, which users receive for visiting, came from.

Map

The map is the start screen. Above it are category filters: "History", "Nature", "Art", "Architecture". Places are marked with colored pins, and the user's current location with a green marker. When a place is selected, a card appears at the bottom with its name, distance and a short description, as well as two main actions: "Listen to audio guide" and "Get directions".

Places feed

For those who plan a trip in advance, there's a feed. Each card is a large photo of the place with the country flag, name and city. At the bottom of the card is quick access to the audio guide and the AR souvenir, plus a button to add it to favorites. The bottom menu has five sections: "Map", "Feed", "Favorites", "Profile" and a central AR button.

Audio guide

The audio guide screen works as a player with text. At the top are the name of the place, the city, the country and a photo; below is the text of the story, with the fragment currently playing highlighted. At the bottom are a progress bar and a pause button. This way, the story can be listened to on the go or read if it's noisy around.

AR souvenirs

For visiting a sight, the user receives an AR souvenir — a 3D model of the place. In the profile, they are gathered into the "My AR souvenirs" collection: the Arc de Triomphe, the Parthenon, Big Ben, the Colosseum. Each souvenir shows the date it was received and the number of tokens it earned. This turns travel into collecting and motivates users to discover new places.

Result

We designed an app in which a traveler can find an interesting place nearby, get directions to it, listen to its story and keep a memory of the visit as an AR souvenir. The "find", "learn" and "collect" scenarios are connected and keep up interest in the next point of the route.