Saint James Way
Interactive Pocket Guide
Client
European Federation of the European Paths of Santiago is a European entity for the cultural route of Saint James way. It includes routes within the countries that integrate the Federation. Pilgrims head to St. James of Compostela since the 9th century to venerate the relics of the apostle Santiago, whose supposed tomb is in the cathedral of St. James of Compostela, Spain.
Challenges and objectives
Their contact with us reflected the following hope and will: to offer more visibility, notoriety and movement to the cultural and spiritual itinerary that represents the Ways of St. James spread throughout Europe. Our main goal with the mobile apps (Android & iOS), backoffice and API is to assure its maintenance.
Aware of the adhesion that the roads of Santiago have every year by pilgrims, the Federation has detected an opportunity for growth. The client's central intention was based on focusing their attention on the pilgrim and gathering its energies so that he could make his routes with more support, information, fun and safety, thus meeting his expectations and needs and, potentially, increasing the pilgrimages every year.
In order to create a digital support, accessible to all, the customer trusted in the technologies we offer to create his product. The challenge seemed to unfold in a mobile application, like a "pocket map", for the pilgrims of the Ways of Saint James.
This mobile application was thought as a tool that would offer the pilgrim a complete, didactic and playful experience. The interactive mobile app gives access to existing maps, routes and places of interest, as well as the respective information and stories. The challenge became clearer: to create a product that would make your walk more knowledge-rich, fun, and safe
This app also has a gamification factor as pilgrims have stamps for visiting places, as official validation that they were that. After stamping the visited places, they could ask for the official certification by the European Federation of the Ways of Santiago. The goal was to motivate pilgrims to “conquer” all existing stamps.
The goal was to create a pocket tool that oriented and helped the pilgrim to have a fruitful experience. For that, we came up with four different categories to answer all needs: Explore, Map, Credential and Profile.
Explore section has a brief description of the selected path: such as its history, the cities you will cross and the points of interest you can visit, the places of support, the total distance of the path and the level of difficulty.
The map allows the pilgrim to show his position on the map, the route he is looking for and the points of interest along with it.
The credential allows users to register all points of interest they visit, creating the gamification effect for the user; add a stamp, i.e. add a point of interest to their credential; and read the QR Code (directing the user to the detail page of a POI).
The profile allows the user to gather their information on their account, such as account information, favorites, etc.
As the project works with several entities, each one responsible for the routes within their country, creating a content management system was key to make information updated for pilgrims.
European Federation of Saint-James Way was able to present an innovative and educational tool that provided the support needed to all pilgrims who embarked on the First European Cultural Itinerary and to all of those who wish to make the route. Our contribution has been assuring the project elements are updated and running perfectly.
