Tourism has been around for centuries, but during the last few years we have been able to observe an increasing interest for a more active type of tourism, also known as Adventure Tourism. People are expecting more out of their vacation and Adventure Tourism offers the perfect solution by creating a deeper connection with nature and the environment.

Using Design Thinking as my methodology I dug deep into the users needs and motivations. I focused on Torres del Paine National Park as that is the most popular destination for international tourists when they visit Chile. Thanks to monthly reports provided by Chile's Department of Tourism I was able to learn that 61% of the people who visit the National Park are foreigners (most of them visiting from Europe and the United States) and over half (53%) are 35 years or older.

Objectives, attributes and qualities were defined based on my research, which helped create the app's intial structure and flow chart.

Lenga's logo process began with a busy image that represented both Torres del Paine's famous landmark as well as a Lenga leaf (from the region's native tree). It later evolved to a more simple logo which conveyed nature with a natural looking font and Earth related colors.

Part of the intial design process involved determining which fonts were going to be used throughout the application, designing iconography for the menu and choosing colors to highlight different sections.

Sketches were created to determine the application's structure. This is done to understand how it will work, figure out the different sections and how the information will be distributed. This step is not about how the app will look, but about how it will work.

These sketches were used during testing to begin to understand at an early stage if the functionalities made sense to the intended user and to figure out which areas needed improvement.

The actual design began with simple elements put together to envision the look and feel of the app. The above image shows the changes made to the Map section from the very first prototype to the last.

User interviews to test usability led to some important discoveries and changes. Some of the users interviewed had never been to Torres del Paine, while others were seasoned tourists who had been there multiple times.

Some of their observations included adding weather forecast, including additional information on the map and in the app such as camping and lodging areas and other places of interest. It was also very important to use as little battery as possible and to be able to access the app offline as there are certain parts of the trail that don't have signal.

This project showed the importance of thinking about the user when approaching any design challenge. The initial idea stemmed from a problem users face when traveling and the solution was only possible through thorough user research and usability testing at every stage of the process.

Lenga aimed to bring tourists traveling to Torres del Paine an opportunity to experience the National Park in a different way, becoming more knowledgeable about the place they were visiting and creating a unique connection with it.

User input brought aspects that weren't being considered before, showcasing how important it is to receive inputs early on so there is still time to include them and test them out before releasing the final product.