A mobile app for active explorers

The commune of Szubin in Kuyavian-Pomeranian voyevodeship in Poland is a vibrant cultural and social organism that beta on the modern promotion of sport and physical activities. Enough to take a look at the Active Together mobile application to conclude that there’s a huge potential in small counties.

Active Together – requirements and goals

1. The application allows citizens to get to know their region in an engaging way. 
2. The application is easy and intuitive enough to use for people of all ages.
3. The application encourages people to spend more active time outdoors.
4. Local senior groups and county representatives need to be involved in the process of app design.

The Urban-Rural Social Welfare Center in Rynarzewo together with the commune of Szubin were looking for a partner with proven collaboration model and deep empathy for seniors who were to be the most valuable partners in the creation process.

Such a broad board of interest, who were involved in building a mobile application for the first time in their lives, combined with the need to adjust the design to various age groups turned out a very interesting challenge for our team.

We started with a series of Design Thinking workshops with seniors. The workshops aimed at collecting interesting places of the region, along with associated stories and legends. By engaging the local community, we managed to collect many stories one could not find in any traveling guide.

We delivered the project in following steps:

• Workshops with seniors, local government representatives and experts. Due to COVID restrictions, some workshops were delivered online and with the use of Miro application.
• Sketches. As the next step, low fidelity wireframes were made to picture the number of screens and the placement of particular elements on the screen. 
• A precise design of an interactive mock-up made in Adobe XD accompanied by the analysis of usage scenarios. 
• Coding. Creating the MVP (first version) and running tests with the users.
• Field visits in chosen places from the application combined with field tests.
• Implementation of corrections and publishing the application.

Thanks to using the PWA (Progressive Web Application) approach as well as Headless programming based on Strapi CMS, we could limit the budget of the development being able to manage the user generated content in an effective manner. 

Results for the Active Together mobile application

We delivered and engaging application rich in bike and hiking routes for tourists and citizens of Szubin county.

• The application is built according to a PWA framework thanks to which it is easy to run in a browser.
• Accessibility mechanisms (e.g. font size adjustment) allow users of different age use the application to the fullest.
• A consistent and contemporary branding shows the ambitions of local Szubin communities. 
• Gamification included – explorers collect points and badges. 
• All routes include challenges that make strolls, biking, or nordic walking more attractive.

User generated content consist of photos, posts, and ability to create groups of fellow explorers and interact with one another.