Footprints Maps App: Gamifying Travel
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
MOBILE APP DEVELOPMENT
Overview
Footprints Maps was designed to gamify travel and make regional tourism more accessible to travellers.
The app is a travel companion for exploring Australia, built for anyone who wants to discover more than the obvious destination. Rather than acting as a passive map or travel directory, Footprints Maps turns real places into challenges, helping users find hikes, lookouts, fishing spots, cultural stops, town icons, and local businesses.
The product gives travellers a reason to pull over, explore and remember the journey. Users can open the map, see what is around them, filter by interests, search by place or region, save challenges for later, complete experiences as they travel, earn LXP, maintain a Journey Streak and build a personal record of the places they have explored.
Footprints Maps was created for the in-between moments of travel – the detours, roadside stops, small towns and local discoveries that often become the most memorable part of a trip.
Footprints Maps App: Gamifying Travel
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNMOBILE APP DEVELOPMENTOverview
Footprints Maps was designed to gamify travel and make regional tourism more accessible to travellers.
The app is a travel companion for exploring Australia, built for anyone who wants to discover more than the obvious destination. Rather than acting as a passive map or travel directory, Footprints Maps turns real places into challenges, helping users find hikes, lookouts, fishing spots, cultural stops, town icons, and local businesses.
The product gives travellers a reason to pull over, explore and remember the journey. Users can open the map, see what is around them, filter by interests, search by place or region, save challenges for later, complete experiences as they travel, earn LXP, maintain a Journey Streak and build a personal record of the places they have explored.
Footprints Maps was created for the in-between moments of travel – the detours, roadside stops, small towns and local discoveries that often become the most memorable part of a trip.
Our Strategy
The strategy for Footprints Maps was built around one core question: What can I do in "this place"?
The map became the centre of the experience. Users can explore real places and things to do across Australia, then filter by categories such as adventure and sport, nature, water sports, fitness and wellness, culture and attractions, food and drink, and places to stay. This keeps discovery simple while allowing different travellers to find experiences that match the way they like to explore.
Challenges give the map purpose. Each pin represents more than a location; it becomes an invitation to do something. A lookout, coastal walk, café, fishing spot, local market or 4WD track can become part of the user’s journey. This turns passive browsing into active exploration and helps make regional travel feel more rewarding.
The planning layer was equally important. Footprints Maps needed to support both spontaneous discovery and planned road trips. Users can save challenges, places and experiences before leaving home, then return to them when they are ready to travel. This makes the app useful before, during and after a trip, especially for travellers moving between major destinations.
Gamification was designed to be lightweight and meaningful. LXP, completed challenges and Journey Streaks create momentum without making the experience feel forced. The goal was not to gamify travel for the sake of it, but to encourage people to slow down, look closer and explore more intentionally.
The interface needed to feel adventurous, playful and practical on the road. Bright category colours, illustrated icons, rounded cards, map pins and imagery of real Australian landscapes help the app feel energetic without losing clarity.
The Results
The finished Footprints Maps app is the start of gamified travel that goes beyond the metro areas and actively promotes what regional Australia has to offer. Users can explore the interactive map and build a record of the experiences they have completed across Australia.
The app also creates a natural connection between travellers and regional businesses. Local cafés, makers, accommodation providers, family-run stops and town icons can be discovered as part of the travel experience, helping users support the communities they pass through without making the product feel like an advertising platform.
The resulting product that feels useful, playful and local-first. It works for planned road trips, quick weekend escapes, family adventures, camping journeys, caravanning routes and spontaneous detours. It enhances behaviours travellers already have – saving places, chasing recommendations, stopping at lookouts and searching for things nearby – and gives them a more rewarding structure.
Footprints Maps succeeds because it makes the journey itself feel worth exploring. It encourages users to slow down, notice more and turn everyday stops into memories.
The team at Go To Apps have taken what was a dream and executed it better than I ever dreamed possible. Knowing we have created something this special and unique still gives me goosebumps.
Rabbit
Founder & CEO / Footprints Maps
