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Description
Wayfarer is an iPhone application that encourages travelers to experience their hometowns, new cities or even new countries from a different perspective than that of the usual tourist. The application introduces 52 Ways of Traveling; through tasks with specific parameters, it gives the user choices for their new adventure. With Wayfarer, I want to make people more aware of their surroundings and local culture while traveling, near or far. Modern traveling is time consuming, expensive, hard on the environment and difficult to plan. With many travel sites to use and many places to go, consumers are overwhelmed by the amount of opportunities. Most of the time the traveler chooses the most popular points of interest, and these places are usually expensive and crowded with other tourists. Choosing a destination because it is popular or because one is told that "everyone must experience it once in their lives" is not as fulfilling as finding interesting places on one's own. Additionally, visiting popular tourist locations while traveling means missing out on authentic local culture or more adventurous journeys. Wayfarer can help the user to be more open and receptive to cultural diversity and to develop new behaviors. It can bring people together and open minds to other cultures. It also encourages people to explore their own communities in order to become aware of their surroundings, local stores and more. Wayfarer emphasizes ways of traveling that do not require money or car travel; instead, it encourages people to travel by foot or to use public transportation. Its goal is not to forbid the user to visit well-known tourist spots, but to suggest a way to explore them differently. This app is for people who like to try out new things and who want to escape common modes of traveling. It encourages people to be social travelers, to think about the environment, and to get "lost" intentionally for those who value the journey as much as the destination. For their next journey, I want to encourage Wayfarer users to leave the travel guide at home and start using the app as their new companion.
