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Team Name:

Mashed Potato


Team Members:


Evidence of Work

Project 2118

Project Info

Team Name


Mashed Potato


Team Members


Hazel , Neha and 3 other members with unpublished profiles.

Project Description


The two briefs that our team aimed to tackle are:


  • Increase visitor expenditure through Smart Tourism

  • Highlight the diversity of South Australia's tourism product through gamification

Introducing South Australia Insider by team Mashed Potato

South Australia Insider

Overview

South Australia Insider is an interactive game that allows users to discover South Australia in a engaging, entertaining and educational manner to not only encourage young (South) Australians and tourists to explore various tourism products (including but not limited to heritages, parks, museums, foods) but also helps support local businesses and enhance expenditures.

In addition to the above aims, South Australia Insider strives to:


  • Create an immersive experience

  • Highlight human values and community

  • celebrate cultural aspects of South Australia

Problem Space

  • Encourage young Australians to discover diverse tourism in South Australia and influence the decision makers in their households (eg. parents) to discover more of South Australia.
  • Promote expenditures in tourism for tourists

Target Audience

  • Young (South) Australians (aged 12 - 18)
  • Tourists aged 18-60, including both local and international tourists

Problems identified

  • Lack of attractions and interesting features for the younger generation
  • According to the South Australian Tourism Commission [1], there is a lower portion of visitors aged 15-24, which may reflect the lack of attractions and interesting features for the younger generation.
  • Lack of encouragement and motivation for visitors and youths to explore South Australian nature and culture
    • As for visitor activities, as researched by South Australian Tourism Commission [1], the most popular activity is eating out, and the main reason for visiting South Australia is to visit relatives and friends. Furthermore, visiting museums, gardens and markets are the least sought-after activities, although these activities showcases the best about South Australian culture and environment.
  • Due to the impact of COVID-19, many local restaurants are experiencing hardships [2]
  • Lack of educational activities about South Australians
    • As mentioned above, most popular activities of visitors in South Australia don't involve great opportunities for visitors to learn more and understand more about South Australia.

User Experience and Values

Due to time limitation, we were unable to conduct detailed user research, however, in order to understand more about the experience of users and what visitors would do and think when they arrive at a new region, we body-stormed a scenario in which we are visitors coming to Japan. Based on our discussion, we identified several values that we would have to take into account when designing our solution.

  • Community
  • Culture
  • Immersion
  • Convenience

Proposed Solution - South Australia Insider

Conceptual Design

High description of the application

Educational, engaging diverse game utilizing map of South Australia that encourages the player to explore parks, museums, and local businesses with different missions and incentives to promote tourism

Features and Functionality

Interactive Map

The initial screen of the app showcases a map of South Australia (with Adelaide as an example) famous tourist attractions, each location symbol on click reveals an information tab about the place as well as the reviews of the attractions.

Daily Quests mode

The core of our application is “quest mode”. This provides daily quests. For example, “Visit one zoo in the city”, “Visit a museum in Adelaide”, “Visit an Italian restaurant in the city”.

Choosing a task transforms the map of the city into only showing the symbols of the relevant locations (For example, if a user selects “Visit a museum in Adelaide”, the map automatically starts showing only museums on the map” ). One of the ways that this application encourages users to do a task is by partnering up with the places being shown if they are commercial sites such as restaurants, theme parks,... to be able to provide a discount - coupon for users when they visit the place and complete the task so that they will be more inclined to stay in the location to spend money and explore

Quests are recommended via algorithms that account for the weather, safety, traffic and events using the Bureau of Meteorology, South Australia’s heritage sites, Country Fire Service and Traffic Volumes datasets. Potential future directions in this aspect could include integrating a public transport dataset that helps users determine the most convenient method of arriving at the location.

Cards collection

Upon completing a task, players receive a “card” showing interesting facts about South Australian flora, fauna, minerals etc. These collectables will be stored in the “my collection” section. This helps players learn about the state.

When a player completes the daily quest, they would be able to receive a bigger prize which could be a discounted ticket to a local concert or event.

Local heroes stories

The “stories” tab shares cool inspirational stories about local, inspirational South Australians. The need for this stems from users' values for culture and community. Sharing anecdotes with local legends could foster a sense of togetherness. For this aspect, a dataset documenting local legends would be required.

This game aims to not only motivate the young tourists to encourage their parents to take them around the city/state by having gaming features such as reward system, beautifully looking collectible fact cards, and game graphics, but also appeal to adult tourists with coupons and discounts for many incredible local locations.

Every tap, every challenge, every 'aha' moment brings us closer to the rich tapestry of South Australia's culture, heritage, and landscapes. Our game isn't just about winning—it's about experiencing, learning, and connecting with a community that shares our love for adventure.

Application Preview

Interactive Map Quest

Interactive Map Quest

When user finishes all of the daily quests, they will receive a coupon!

Daily Quests completion coupon

Cards collection interface

Cards collection interface

Local heroes stories interface

Local heroes stories interface

Application Pitching Video

Interaction Paradigms

Mobile phone

Key Interface Metaphors

  • Universal map icon
  • A book icon representing readings material
  • A flag icon representing quests

Future Directions

Due to time limitation, there are a lot of aspects of this project that could be improved. Below are several ideas for features and concepts that would be beneficial for the purpose of this application.

  • Include transport suggestion and planning for easier commute between places with public transport.
    • According to [3], personal vehicles are the main mode of transport. Therefore, having suggestions and plannings for public transport would be beneficial for users, and also helps fostering the public transport system of South Australia.
Suggestions for future datasets
  • Dataset for local heroes stories
  • Dataset for gardens in South Australia
  • Dataset for museums in South Australia
  • Dataset for zoos in South Australia
  • Dataset for public transport (similar to TransLink GTFS) in South Australia

Ethical Concerns

    Privacy
    • Since we are posting real story about local heroes, it would raise privacy concerns for using personal expereince and information.
    A part of the target audience is vulnerable.
    • Since our target audience includes youths (ages 12-18), we have to be mindful and aware of our design for this generation.
    Safety
    • Since our application suggests places for players to go to, but do not suggest any methods to get there, there is no guarantee they will be safe getting to the destination.
    Accessibility (color contrast, lack of sounds)
    • Our design has not considered accessibility for people with disability.
    Prospect of addiction amongst young users (card collection, coupons)
    • Since the core idea is to collect cards and receive rewards (coupons) as incentives, we will have to consider the prospect of game addiction, especially for younger users.
    Unfair practices, harmful intentions from users to local businesses
    • Since we are suggesting different businesses for users, we have to take into account the scenario in which extreme users will use our application to harass businesses to obtain more benefits (eg. coupons)

References

Photo by Sergio de Paula on Unsplash

Photo by mansoor jokar on Unsplash

Photo by Giullianna Balza on Unsplash

Photo by Giullianna Balza on Unsplash

Models for high-fi prototyping provided by Daniel Stephens

[1] South Australian Tourism Commission

[2] University of South Australia

[3] South Australian Tourism Commission

All icons used are FontAwesome and Bootstrap


#gamification #tourism #south australia #expenditure #educational #engaging #entertaining

Data Story


Our data story involves making meaningful usage of existing open datasets from the government and makes it more interesting.


Evidence of Work

Video

Homepage

Team DataSets

South Australia Weather and Warnings

Description of Use This dataset is used for the algorithm to suggest places that have good weather forecast.

Data Set

SA Heritage Places

Description of Use This dataset is used for recommending destinations for users to visit.

Data Set

Park Land Parks

Description of Use This dataset is used for suggesting parks in South Australia (Adelaide in specific)

Data Set

Australian Tourism Data Warehouse API

Description of Use This dataset is used to get suggestions for places for the player to visit.

Data Set

Traffic Volumes

Description of Use This dataset is used to check the traffic to different places so that the algorithm for our app could suggest the best destinations and users don't have to be in heavy traffic to get there.

Data Set

Challenge Entries

Highlight the diversity of South Australia's tourism product through gamification

How can we apply gamification to engage and educate young (South) Australians about South Australia's diverse tourism product offer and through this, influence key decision makers in their household to discover more of South Australia?

Go to Challenge | 14 teams have entered this challenge.

Increase visitor expenditure through Smart Tourism

How can we use digital technology to "upsell" to visitors to South Australia by uncovering additional attractions and experiences and/or extending their stay?

Go to Challenge | 16 teams have entered this challenge.