Designing a Mobile App for the Camino Paths north of France

[kitz]

Hi everyone!

Back in 2016, I became super interested in doing a pilgrimage, but was afraid to leave the country or be too far away from home. I live in northern Germany.

At the end of my first day of walking, I was sick and confused and had to stop. I was dehydrated. I had hypothermia. I had accidentally walked an extra 8km because I got lost. My couch surfing host didn't answer his phone and I didn't have his address. One hostel had one bed free and it would have cost me 80 Euros. I was so confused from the hypothermia, I bought the wrong train ticket home twice in a row. My husband drove 4 hours in his car to come rescue me.

A month later, I tried again and made it three days before getting heat stroke. I went home for two days to recover and was brought back to the path and made it five days during the third attempt.

Even though I experienced dehydration, hypothermia and heat stroke, I discovered I absolutely loved walking and I loved visiting the old churches along the way. I had no idea that walking 7 hours a day could make me so happy.

Today, I am in my second semester at design school. For my interaction design class, a mandatory course as part of the Basis Year, I have to design a mobile phone app in the category TRAVEL. I decided to take the topic of navigating the Camino in the northern parts of Europe where there are yellow arrows but unfortunately not yellow arrows at every single fork in the road or intersection, which is how I got lost on my first day. I had two paper maps with me marking the way and I had a book and I had my iPhone, but I still got lost. (On one part of the way, the two maps did not match.)

Even though I loved my pilgrimage* and was super happy, I haven't managed to do another one since 2016. I hope in doing my research for the app I am designing, I will find myself on the Camino again soon!

I would love to connect with other pilgrims living in Hamburg, Germany, who could help me brainstorm my ideas about the app design. I would also love to hear from new pilgrims who have ideas as well.

Thank you for the forum, Ivar!

 

[daesdaemar]

There is a map somewhere on the forum that shows the location of all forum members. I can't seem to find it now. Maybe someone will post a link to it and you can find others in or near Hamburg.

 

[Kitsambler]

So if you built a DE-NL-BE parallel to the iphiGenie app published for France and a similar one for Switzerland, thousands of people would kiss your feet, I'm sure. There is a German-language pilgrim forum somewhere; @SYates might be able to help you find it.

 

[naplesdon]

You realized you are attempting to reinventing the Wise Pilgrim app which is in print and digital format.

 

[Marc S.]

In response to some other reactions.

There are several German pilgrim forums, but this seems to be the most active: https://www.daspilgerforum.de/ Hopefully you find some people from Hamburg there.

The title of your thread seems to be incorrect - it mentions north of France, but I think you mean north of Germany ? The Wise Pilgrim app could indeed be a source of inspiration as far as design is concerned (it does not cover the north of Germany though).

I am no expert on apps and GPS tracks (never use them) but it seems GPS tracks for the German camino's are already available. Have a look at this website: http://www.jakobswege-europa.de/wege/via-baltica.htm

Hope this helps. Good luck with your project!

 

[lt56ny]

I want to also add that you do need to be clear about which Camino and where in Europe you are talking about developing an app. As someone else suggested you are trying to reinvent the Wise Pilgrim but even if you are not and you are talking about an app for Germany I would recommend downloading both the Wise Pilgrim app and the Buen Camino app. I think they are both free. It will give you some ideas to see what they both offer. They are similar and what you may want to include that may be more unique for your app. It will also show you how much work it takes to develop an app like this. Buen Camino and good luck.

 

[Kitsambler]

The title of your thread seems to be incorrect - it mentions north of France, but I think you mean north of Germany ?

This a peculiarity of English usage. "North of France" means any area north of the French border. But "in the north of France" means areas within the French border but south of it.

I know, English is weird. Sorry about that.

 

[naplesdon]

My apologies, I assumed you were lost on the Norte. My bad.

 

[Thomas1962]

I'm one of the people who developed tracks and accommodationplaces for many parts of France and Spain, we do this as part of the Dutch Confraternity of Saint James. You can find them here in the resource section but the direct link is https://www.santiago.nl/downloads
The page is in Dutch, but there is a googletranslate button in it.
If you are interested to make these also for Germany (you don't need to!worry about the technical part) please let me know., would be nice to cooperate!

 

[kitz]

There is a map somewhere on the forum that shows the location of all forum members. I can't seem to find it now. Maybe someone will post a link to it and you can find others in or near Hamburg.

That would be awesome.

I've been digging through old e-mails and chat logs collecting information from the research I did back then. I remembered that one blessed thing about living in Hamburg is that we have a St. James Church here in the middle of town. There's even a small pilgrim's office inside where I learned I did not have to purchase my pilgrim passport online and have it mailed to me like I did back then, because I could have picked one up in person here. I haven't been there since 2016 but plan to stop by soon.

Back in 2016, it was through the pilgrim's office that I learned about the monthly pilgrim meetup. Looks like this is still going on and the next one will be on Tuesday, November 12, 2019, in the same place they met before. It will occur three days before my final presentation, but the design doesn't have to be perfect by then. Just the basic layout and wireframes and a few pages about the concept.

I have more answers from the above responses, but I need to run to the art supplly store before they close in 38 minutes and then I have to head off to help finish painting a wall mural. I will answer either late tonight or early in the morning.

So far, I appreciate all the ideas. Thank you.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Today, I am in my second semester at design school. For my interaction design class, a mandatory course as part of the Basis Year, I have to design a mobile phone app in the category TRAVEL. I decided to take the topic of navigating the Camino in the northern parts of Europe

Note that that above mentions that this is a university project. At least in its first stages it isn't to create another app that has been already developed.

Best of luck with your project @kitz.

 

[nickymd1]

Go, Kitz, go! This is a really cool project. I've walked the Jakobsweg from Berlin to Naumburg via Leipzig and found it expensive, hard to navigate, lonely and beautiful. I totally understand what you mean and I hope your project is a roaring success!
Grüße aus Berlin!