At 51 stories high, split second decisions count. This is the situation for Bungy guides at the Auckland Skywalk. And at any moment in this situation, there’s a potential once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity which guides nor customers wouldn’t want to miss. To make it easy for them to not only manage the tour but get that shot, I worked with DWSto design an iOS app that made it quick and easy to do just that.
Guides had to know how to use and navigate around the app at a glance. Not only are guides tasked with photographing the golden moments of each customer, they also have to handle tour logistics. So the app had to allow them to plan around the schedule and update tours on-the-fly, without the guide losing their capacity to act in the moment.
Given the constrained situation for the guides, the app needed to prioritise for their usability: it had to show guides how to use it without them having to think in the moment.
We spent time researching requirements with the guides and came up with a list. As with any good research, the list was long. And the problem with long lists of requirements is they are never good user experiences: the guide’s capacity to act in the moment is lost if the app’s UI allows every possible function.
Like all good design work, many of the workflows required multiple design iterations. The app’s workflows are straightforward and simple now, but the surprising factor in all good design work is that the simple often looked terribly complex to begin with!
As you can imagine, the worst thing we could do for the guide’s situation is force them through superfluous steps in a given workflow—that could cost them the shot of the day. The key to striking a balance between functional requirements and guide usability was creating a team of three—designer, project manager and guide expert—who were empowered with all design decisions.
Good design is never the result of one person but rather a small group who can—and are empowered to—make the best decision together in the context of the app’s priorities.
Unexpected and surprising user interfaces cost users in ways that is hard to measure. A minute lost in a maze of steps means frustration, and with frustration comes loss of task focus, and if it continues any longer, loss of brand trust—if this seemingly simple workflow doesn’t work, what else doesn’t work?
Sticking to Apple’s HIG standards to implement workflows within the bounds of common user interface paradigms means users will already be familiar with how things are supposed to work.
The design’s job was to put that common knowledge to best use, and—wherever possible given the app’s custom requirements—give guides the interface they expected. No surprises, no frustration and no loss of focus.
After a rigorous testing period, the app is now in use. With the coinciding release of the Epic Platform, the app has garenered generouse reviews from New Zealand tech and adverture media alike.
AJ Hackett Bungy NZ takes iPhone leap, looks to sell new social media-friendly system to other adventure tourism operators” Chris Keall, The New Zealand Herald, April 18 2024
What once required multiple photographers and a director in a production process akin to a live broadcast, now – from the moment the bungee cord is attached to your ankles through to the jump itself – it can be captured using 13 specifically placed iPhone 14 Pro devices. John Hannan, Escape, September 8 2023
The system uses custom iOS apps EpicShot Experience Capture and EpicShot Guide App to take and edit content for customers in real time and AJHBNZ worked with development partners DWS to design to build the software. Paul Yandall, Tourism Ticker, April 18 2024
Three, two, one, snap: AJ Hackett teams with Apple to capture action Australian Geographic Adventure, October 20 2023
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