The trip begins before arrival. AR City Hotspots explored how an augmented-reality city guide could inform and entertain travelers after booking, making city highlights tangible through an interactive miniature environment.
Audience
Travelers after booking
Contribution
UX/UI & art direction
Experience
AR city guide
Milestone
Vondelpark test case
City guideSaved placesYour trip
ENY
Your trip Amsterdam City Hotspots
Amsterdam city guide
A new perspective on Vondelpark.
Discover the park’s highlights, then bring them into your space.
Save to your trip
Interactive AR preview360°
Vondelpark · Amsterdam
City Hotspot AR experience
A little preview. A lot to discover.
A miniature world of green paths, waterside stops, and places to pause.
Amsterdam Oud-Zuid Explore at your own pace
Explore the AR experience
Prefer a list? Browse every highlight below.
Three ways to explore AR preview Your map, ready when you are
HighlightsMap & directionsSaved places
Make a little discovery
Vondelpark highlights
Room to slow downOpen green spaces
Quiet paths and open lawns for a break from the city.
View highlight
A landmark in the parkThe park pavilion
Find the pavilion and orient yourself around its setting.
Vondelpark, AmsterdamHighlights saved to your city guide
AR unavailable? Every place is also accessible in the guide.
ExploreSavedMy tripProfile
01 / Discovery & framing
How do you make an unfamiliar AR interaction understandable before asking someone to explore a city?
AR City Hotspots took shape through a Vondelpark test case in Amsterdam. My contribution covered UX/UI design and art direction. The concept study below examines how to help someone move from opening a guide to inspecting a place.
The design tension
Camera permission, surface placement, and destination content create different interaction states. A visitor needs a useful next step even when AR placement is difficult.
02 / Customer journey
See the whole journey.
Explore the key tasks, potential friction, and opportunities across the journey.
Action & touchpoint
Open the city guide after booking.
Potential friction
The value of AR may not be immediately clear.
Design opportunity
Preview the city content before asking for setup.
Action & touchpoint
Allow the camera and place the scene.
Potential friction
Scanning a surface is unfamiliar.
Design opportunity
Provide a simple placement cue and recovery path.
Action & touchpoint
Select a hotspot in the scene.
Potential friction
Spatial novelty can compete with useful information.
Design opportunity
Give each hotspot a clear title and focused detail.
Action & touchpoint
Keep a place in mind or explore another.
Potential friction
An immersive scene can become a dead end.
Design opportunity
Provide an obvious route back to the city overview.
Read the complete journey
Discover — See why it is useful
Open the city guide after booking. The value of AR may not be immediately clear. Preview the city content before asking for setup.
Place — Start exploring
Allow the camera and place the scene. Scanning a surface is unfamiliar. Provide a simple placement cue and recovery path.
Explore — Find something interesting
Select a hotspot in the scene. Spatial novelty can compete with useful information. Give each hotspot a clear title and focused detail.
Continue — Return to trip planning
Keep a place in mind or explore another. An immersive scene can become a dead end. Provide an obvious route back to the city overview.
03 / Concepts & iterationConcept study
Make the tradeoff visible.
Direction A
Immersion first
Immediate visual impact, but asks for setup before the benefit is understood.
Direction B
Preview then place
Explains the destination content before introducing AR setup.
The concept starts with a destination preview and offers a list alternative. This trades a little immediacy for clearer orientation and recovery when a surface cannot be found.
Compare the design directions
A / Initial concept
Booking.com•••
An initial structure
Explore in AR
01Open camera
02Scan the room
03Place the scene
04Tap a hotspot
Continue →
B / Refined concept
Booking.com•••
A clearer next step
Discover Vondelpark
A focused view, with the wider journey one step away.
→Preview city highlightsSuggested next actionNext
02Place in your space
03Or explore as a list
View the complete journey ↗
01
Assumption
An unexplained camera-first flow can make the first interaction feel like a technical setup task.
02
Proposed change
Explain the destination value first, then introduce placement with a visible non-AR alternative.
03
Validation plan
Observe whether first-time participants can start exploring, recover from failed placement, and explain the purpose of the guide.
04 / Wireframes & task flowsDesign study
An AR flow with a way forward.
Map the transition from destination preview to AR exploration, with an equivalent route for visitors who cannot place the scene.
01
Primary task
Preview, place, explore
A traveller opens the Vondelpark guide. Explain its value before camera access and unfamiliar surface scanning.
01
Preview the destination
Show what the guide contains before asking for technical setup.
Explore in AR →
02
Explain camera access
Connect permission to placement and keep a non-AR choice available.
Continue to camera →
03
Guide placement
Use one instruction and a recognizable surface target.
Place the scene →
04
Inspect a highlight
A selected place keeps its context and a route back to exploration.
End of sequence ✓
Flow outcomeSelecting a hotspot opens a focused detail view with a clear return to the scene.
02
Alternative & recovery
Keep going when AR fails
A surface cannot be found or camera access is unavailable. The destination content should remain reachable.
01
Explain the failure
Offer recovery without trapping the visitor in repeated scanning.
View places as a list →
02
Offer the same places
Carry the same destination and highlights into a familiar list.
Open a highlight →
03
Retain useful context
Show the selected place and a predictable route back.
End of sequence ✓
Flow outcomeThe list opens the same place information, without requiring another placement attempt.
05 / Testing & confidenceProposed test plan
Can a first-time visitor get started?
Proposed usability sessions on supported devices in varied lighting and surface conditions.
Hypothesis
A preview and explicit recovery path help first-time visitors enter the experience with less confusion.
Tasks to observe
Explain what the guide will help you do.
Open a place after a failed placement attempt.
Return to the city overview without losing context.
What would count as evidence?
Primary measure Unassisted completion of the first hotspot task.
Guardrails Permission comprehension, failed placement recovery, readability, and motion comfort.
Decision rule
Resolve repeated setup failures before optimizing engagement. Compare task completion across device and environment conditions; do not infer success from novelty alone.
06 / Result & reflection
What the work made possible.
A Vondelpark test case brought city highlights into an AR experience. The setup and recovery wireframes explore how a destination preview and a non-AR alternative could make the guide easier to enter.
City guideSaved placesYour trip
ENY
Your trip Amsterdam City Hotspots
Amsterdam city guide
A new perspective on Vondelpark.
Discover the park’s highlights, then bring them into your space.
Save to your trip
Interactive AR preview360°
Vondelpark · Amsterdam
City Hotspot AR experience
A little preview. A lot to discover.
A miniature world of green paths, waterside stops, and places to pause.
Amsterdam Oud-Zuid Explore at your own pace
Explore the AR experience
Prefer a list? Browse every highlight below.
Three ways to explore AR preview Your map, ready when you are
HighlightsMap & directionsSaved places
Make a little discovery
Vondelpark highlights
Room to slow downOpen green spaces
Quiet paths and open lawns for a break from the city.
View highlight
A landmark in the parkThe park pavilion
Find the pavilion and orient yourself around its setting.
I would establish the non-AR route early and test in ordinary environments, not only ideal demo conditions. The value is discovering a place; successful surface tracking is only one way to support that task.
