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Project Overview

An immersive, unique and world leading Culture and Tourism application for iPhone that acts as an invaluable companion for tourists visiting the ‘Red Centre’ of Australia.

Organisation

Big Mobile Group

Team

Graham Christie
John Sardelic
Tim De Kretser

Project Brief

The Australian Red Centre Way between Alice Springs and Uluru is one of the world’s most iconic tourist routes. The magnificent West MacDonnell Ranges, “West Macs” are part of the Red Centre Way and home to the West Arranta people of Central Australia. Visitors to the region are able to immerse themselves in scenic beauty, unique nature as well as experience one of the oldest cultures on earth.

The Northern Territory Government Parks and Wildlife department engaged Big Mobile Group in conjunction with Wanted Digital, on this unique world-class project to develop an iPhone application. The Brief was to create a world-leading visitor and cultural guide sharing a wealth of stunning content including 28 videos, 180 audio stories and countless images, showcasing 17 unique locations across the region. This amazing mobile application was to enhance the visitor’s experience and provide the opportunity to share the unique stories of historical, nature, art and cultural significance. Local people tell the stories and through this digital application we can ensure this valuable content is passed down and available for generations to come.

Project Innovation / Need

The sheer scale of the task broke new ground in the international tourism sector. Never before had so much content of this type been blended into a single Mobile platform.

The App is not just a visitor guide with Maps and tourist tips. It is a experiential destination of interpretive content designed to welcome the traveler to the land and the people of the West Macs, and designed to be of invaluable use ‘on location’.

There was also one practical consideration. That outside Alice Springs town centre, there is negligible reception available for any telecommunications providers, so the App needed to assume this and operate wholly independently.

User Experience

The Application is downloaded in it’s entirety to the users phone – this is to ensure that once on location in the region, regardless of mobile phone reception, visitors can access the content to enhance their visit. The Application can be navigated in multiple ways either through location or through themed content. Our design was based on the in-depth research about visitors to the region as this had show there were four main areas of interest – culture, art, history, nature. For example, a visitor to the world famous Ormiston Gorge can select to listen to all stories about the place, or if interested specifically in the local cultural significance of the area from they can select to hear stories told by the local Arranta people.

Project Marketing

Visitors to the region can discover this application and other associated content through the West Macs website www.nt.gov.au/westmacs , through the Apple Store and also at the West Macs Discovery Centre based in Alice Springs. There was also a search optimisation program implemented with associated tourism entities in the region to promote discovery.