BRIEF

Deck of Secrets is a series of pocket guides in the form of a deck of cards, used by travellers to find hidden bars and restaurants usually missed, and only known to locals.

With an existing iOS app which hadn’t been updated since iOS 4, Blue Cottage was brought on board to redesign and create a new visual design language for use in mobile apps, along with recreate the iOS app, and create a new Android app.

PROTOTYPING/DESIGN

Inspiration was taken from the existing hard copy product, and emphasis put on making full use of high resolution venue images.  Features which couldn’t be added to the original “deck of cards” product were also developed, such as walking directions, and the ability to add notes and bookmarks to venues.

Dynamic prototypes were created, so Deck of Secrets could view designs on their physical iOS and Android devices – without having a single line of code being written.

OFFLINE SUPPORT

Offline support was a key feature in the apps, as users may not have internet connectivity while travelling.

This was achieved by bundling the app with all venue information and images, so an internet connection was not required to use.  If an internet connection was detected, the app would check in with a centralised server and if available, download new venue information.

WHITE LABELLING

Deck of Secrets has a huge range of physical products, and had the goal of releasing one mobile app to match each of their physical products.

Because of this, the apps had to be made to be easily white labelled.  I.e. the apps had to be made so they were easy to “skin”.  This was done by defining certain attributes which could be changed from app to app, e.g. the app icon, the list of venues, etc – and then creating an easy way to customise each of these from app to app.