Wien zu Fuß App – Citizen Engagement through AR Game

True to the motto “a city where its citizens walk is a liveable city”, the Wien zu Fuß app (or Vienna by feet in English) was developed to engage users to walk through the city of Vienna with a fitness, fun and gaming twist. The app includes a step counter, a city map routing with points of interest filters and the possibility to redeem vouchers for earned steps. An augmented reality treasure hunt based on the Wikitude technology was integrated, where pedestrians can collect diamonds scattered all over Vienna.

In the AR game, users can collect diamonds when they are close enough to relevant points, which is one of the main features to engage people to walk. 1.000 diamonds were placed all over Vienna. Grey diamonds show up to indicate a nearby collectible. It turns blue when the user is close enough to pick it up to afterwards turn yellow when it is finally collected. On the map all collectable diamonds are shown and can be defined as routing point. The very precise routing- and map features of the app help pedestrians find the optimal way to the target. Due to other activating functions like googie-vouchers, the step counter, the step history and the step highscore, where users can compete against each other in an overall ranking or just a Facebook friends highscore, the app enjoys great popularity. More than 600 users actively take part in the step counter competition after one month, where more than 1 million steps are reported each day.