The home screen of the Visit Vancouver iPad application uses a set of highly visual icons as a starting point for those visiting the city, or planning a visit. From here, they can take a tour, find a place to eat, look at photos and videos, and more. Users with active internet connections can also access up-to-date weather information.
Curious to see the app in action? The video above provides a brief, 60-second look at what it does, how easy it is to use, and how smoothly the whole thing works. (Incidentally, the video was created in-house, at smashLAB.)
The Tour features large, powerful images from many of Vancouver’s photographers. It starts with introductory pages, like the one above, that explain what’s to come, and provide simple visual instructions on how to navigate (which, in this section is all about the swipe).
Pictured (from top left, clockwise): large tiles allow users to quickly drill down into key areas of the application; users can see videos, favourite content, or email to a friend; application contents can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode; at the end of sections, users are directed to additional information.
Video and photo galleries allow users to get a real feeling for the nature of the city, and what they’ll find there. These are fed by Tourism Vancouver’s YouTube and flickr accounts, allowing them to use internal content, while also tapping into that contributed by other Vancouver lovers.
Maps are integrated heavily into the Visit Vancouver application. This allows users to see where hotels, restaurants, and activities can be found, or, switch into StreetView and get a feel for the area they’re interested in.
Pictured (from top left, clockwise): The Activities section index page; restaurants are organized into varying cuisine types; Favourites allow users to organize the things they want to take in; Events are organized by month; blog content is reformatted into tablet-friendly formats; basic content pages provide additional information.
View full case study here.
