Sydney Culture Walks

The Sydney Culture Walks apps, first published in 2013, was one of the earliest guided walking tour apps available on the App Store and Google Play. Within the app, users are presented with a series themed of cultural, historical and architectural walks throughout Sydney's inner suburbs.

Each walk includes a route presented in a custom-styled map with a detailed route, offering written turn-by-turn directions and 'follow me' map mode. As users make their way along the walk, a unique split-screen view allows users to pull up the details for each point of interest on top of the map, with photos, audio descriptions, detailed historical and architectural notes and links for more information.

The app is entirely free to use and requires no sign up or registration. Sydney Culture Walks has been audited by the Centre for Inclusive Design to meet AA accessibility standards.

The usage scenario for the Sydney Culture Walks app seems straightforward at first glance - an app used, out on the streets, by people maybe not so familiar with Sydney's inner suburbs. The solution to this design puzzle emphasised simplicity, large, clear elements and minimal ornamentation.

But insights from analytics suggested a different story. Users were using the app in many other places, often far from Sydney, and usually in an entirely static location.

A recent redesign and rebuild of the app focused on this 'lean back' mode. The app wasn't just a tool to use when on the walk, users also used the app to virtually explore the city. To give these users the experience they were after, designs were adjusted to highlight the strong, professional images used as the hero images for each walk and add some extra finesse to transitions. The goal was to keep the UX intuitive, while still feeling lush.

The Sydney Culture Walks app recently celebrated 10 years on the App Store and Google Play. In that time the app has received multiple awards, holds a 4.8 star rating on the App Store and remains the most popular app published by the City of Sydney.

We Make Apps have built a long-term partnership with the team at the City of Sydney, helping to respond to the needs of the organisation while also suggesting ways to enhance and improve the app.