Mashed Potato
The two briefs that our team aimed to tackle are:
South Australia Insider is an interactive game that allows users to discover South Australia in a engaging, entertaining and educational manner to not only encourage young (South) Australians and tourists to explore various tourism products (including but not limited to heritages, parks, museums, foods) but also helps support local businesses and enhance expenditures.
In addition to the above aims, South Australia Insider strives to:
Due to time limitation, we were unable to conduct detailed user research, however, in order to understand more about the experience of users and what visitors would do and think when they arrive at a new region, we body-stormed a scenario in which we are visitors coming to Japan. Based on our discussion, we identified several values that we would have to take into account when designing our solution.
Educational, engaging diverse game utilizing map of South Australia that encourages the player to explore parks, museums, and local businesses with different missions and incentives to promote tourism
The initial screen of the app showcases a map of South Australia (with Adelaide as an example) famous tourist attractions, each location symbol on click reveals an information tab about the place as well as the reviews of the attractions.
The core of our application is “quest mode”. This provides daily quests. For example, “Visit one zoo in the city”, “Visit a museum in Adelaide”, “Visit an Italian restaurant in the city”.
Choosing a task transforms the map of the city into only showing the symbols of the relevant locations (For example, if a user selects “Visit a museum in Adelaide”, the map automatically starts showing only museums on the map” ). One of the ways that this application encourages users to do a task is by partnering up with the places being shown if they are commercial sites such as restaurants, theme parks,... to be able to provide a discount - coupon for users when they visit the place and complete the task so that they will be more inclined to stay in the location to spend money and explore
Quests are recommended via algorithms that account for the weather, safety, traffic and events using the Bureau of Meteorology, South Australia’s heritage sites, Country Fire Service and Traffic Volumes datasets. Potential future directions in this aspect could include integrating a public transport dataset that helps users determine the most convenient method of arriving at the location.
Upon completing a task, players receive a “card” showing interesting facts about South Australian flora, fauna, minerals etc. These collectables will be stored in the “my collection” section. This helps players learn about the state.
When a player completes the daily quest, they would be able to receive a bigger prize which could be a discounted ticket to a local concert or event.
The “stories” tab shares cool inspirational stories about local, inspirational South Australians. The need for this stems from users' values for culture and community. Sharing anecdotes with local legends could foster a sense of togetherness. For this aspect, a dataset documenting local legends would be required.
This game aims to not only motivate the young tourists to encourage their parents to take them around the city/state by having gaming features such as reward system, beautifully looking collectible fact cards, and game graphics, but also appeal to adult tourists with coupons and discounts for many incredible local locations.
Every tap, every challenge, every 'aha' moment brings us closer to the rich tapestry of South Australia's culture, heritage, and landscapes. Our game isn't just about winning—it's about experiencing, learning, and connecting with a community that shares our love for adventure.
Mobile phone
Due to time limitation, there are a lot of aspects of this project that could be improved. Below are several ideas for features and concepts that would be beneficial for the purpose of this application.
Photo by Sergio de Paula on Unsplash
Photo by mansoor jokar on Unsplash
Photo by Giullianna Balza on Unsplash
Photo by Giullianna Balza on Unsplash
Models for high-fi prototyping provided by Daniel Stephens
[1] South Australian Tourism Commission
[2] University of South Australia
[3] South Australian Tourism Commission
All icons used are FontAwesome and Bootstrap
Our data story involves making meaningful usage of existing open datasets from the government and makes it more interesting.
Description of Use This dataset is used for the algorithm to suggest places that have good weather forecast.
Description of Use This dataset is used for recommending destinations for users to visit.
Description of Use This dataset is used for suggesting parks in South Australia (Adelaide in specific)
Description of Use This dataset is used to get suggestions for places for the player to visit.
Description of Use This dataset is used to check the traffic to different places so that the algorithm for our app could suggest the best destinations and users don't have to be in heavy traffic to get there.
Go to Challenge | 14 teams have entered this challenge.
Go to Challenge | 16 teams have entered this challenge.