There’s always something brewing at GuidiGO. In fact, two new apps, one for the iPhone and one for the iPad, just appeared in the App Store. You can download them here and take a brief tour of the details below.

A fully redesigned interface and a design specific to each type of screen

Clean, crisp, and clutter-free, the new GuidiGO interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, with more direct access to the menus. The iPhone app makes use of the full iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus screen. Not content to re-use the iPhone interface for the iPad, we designed the iPad interface specifically for the iPad and its larger screen.

This redesigned interface isn’t just bells and whistles. Whether you are using the iPhone app or the iPad app, you will find a more powerful application, entirely redesigned to make the content pop and to be incredibly user-friendly — this is an interface that you will actually enjoy navigating.

In designing these new apps, we listened to tour authors and their concerns about quality and how users interact with their tours, and also to the users themselves, who always want simplicity and guidance.

The map – the heart of it all

The GuidiGO tour experience now starts at the map. From this central point users can access the audio-visual content for each stage of the tour as well as additional content like videos and games.

Also from the map, users access one central menu with the basic tour features: summary, means of access, useful links, etc. This menu also allows users to set audio preferences, review the tour, update the tour, or restart the game. If the tour is a treasure hunt, the map displays a second menu that shows inventory, virtual objects won or discovered, clues, and game stats.

The content looks better than ever – creating an even more immersive experience

« Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent » – Joe Sparano.

We embraced this philosophy and made it our own. The GuidiGO app design fades into the background to emphasize the content. With an entirely transparent interface and magnified, full-screen images that can even be animated (a feature that can be deactivated), it’s now even easier to lose yourself in the content.

Of course, you will still find one unique GuidiGO feature that hasn’t changed: images that sync perfectly with the audio and pull users into the story.

On the iPad, treasure hunts take full advantage of the larger screen, offering an interface that encourages open-ended questions, multiple choice questions, and word searches.

A new twist on your content: the 360º virtual tour

The map now integrates the Street View feature. So your exterior tour is now accessible to all users — including users who can’t visit your site in person for whatever reason: economic, geographical, or physical.

While listening to your content, users can take a virtual stroll through the neighborhood that you invite them to explore. They can enjoy 360º views and can even zoom in on details in the environment. The app uses the gyroscope to turn the iPad into a window opening onto a new destination.

This new use is proving to be extremely useful in an educational context; students are now free to tour educational sites the world over.

An app that makes the most of Bluetooth LE and iBeacon

Another new feature: the app can now interact with beacons. Install these little Bluetooth sensors in your museum, enter your beacon numbers into GuidiGO Studio, and offer your visitors a liberating museum experience. A unique symbol will alert visitors to nearby works with content in the app.

Good news for GuidiGO cultural site clients: we have partnered with one of the primary beacon manufacturers, Kontakt.io. This is a great opportunity for you to test beacons at your location at a special price. Contact us to learn more.

More than 600 total workdays to bring you nothing but the best

We don’t always realize just how much work is required to create an app so refined that it sets new standards for an industry — a universal app optimized for all users:
– whatever their screen (iPhone 5, 6, 6 Plus, iPad, iPad Air, iPad mini)
– whatever their iOS

Some trivia for the curious —

The new GuidiGO app for iPhone/iPad is:

• More than 300 screens (the image above is just a preview) — a considerable undertaking, even before tackling the 1st line of code!
• Tens of thousands of lines of code
• 600 man-days of design (UX & UI), coding, and tests
• More than 20,000 words in six languages
• …not to mention many epic battles, a few laugh riots, and several all-nighters (It was our Designer and our CTO who insisted that I add that ;-)

I’m sure you can’t wait to test out the results of so much work for yourself. And you can — the apps are available here.