Apps, AR, Design, IoT, Mobile, Strategy, UX/UI

HelloCity Retail Reward App

HelloCity is a Way-finding Rewards application designed to draw visitors back to The High Street through access to additional digital content. This includes local retailer profiles, special offer coupons, loyalty punchcards, audio walks/video tours, and locally-relevant Wikipedia articles. The app utilised 3D printed pins attached to existing street furniture. Users could interact physically with the 3D pins via QR, NFC & iBeacon.

HelloCity was a fantastic product to work on. I was involved in the full product cycle, from the design of the retailer backend dashboard, user smartphone app, to the 3D pin design and development. An interesting part of the project was defining the underlying commercial model of the app. Small independent retailers are difficult to engage, and local authorities are against tight budget restraints. We developed a model that offered some commercial support from the local authority to allow us to engage with the retailers on a ‘free’ basis, this meant we were able to keep the app free for the end user, free at the point of use for the retailer with the model based on commission payments at the retail end, with other areas for monetization available for arts & culture trails and wayfinding etc.

The HelloCity app and 3D pin infrastructure are now integrated into the government ecosystem.

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