My idea is to use 'I know a Great Little Place...’ to help immerse the user into London life. Using hand held devices such as smart phones and PDA’s such as the IPAD I would like to create a navigational tool that can navigate the user to a place that they may not ordinarily visit (this is done on a social recommendation basis using ‘I know a great little place...’).

I wish the technology to be as immersive and user friendly as possible. For this reason I have chosen the following technologies to enable as interactive user experience as possible; - GPS navigation to plot these places of interest on a map and help navigate the consumer to these places using Google mapping and satellite navigation – Augmented reality for a more local navigation so users can see visually through the camera on their smart phones where to go and where the place is they are going is. It will also enable the user to see feedback from other users on the attraction in question. This more local navigation will allow the users to be completely immersed in what is around them and brings a truly interactive dimension to navigation around the city.  

The application (like the website) will be able to organise the places of interest into different categories, for example bars, restaurants, theatres, beauty spots etc. I think it is also important to identify that London is an incredible vast are. For this reason i think it is important to allow users to choose in which are in London they would like to visit. This will be done by postal code using Google Maps and will plot the places users may want to visit on the map for them to choose. To navigate to these places the user will be able to select the place they would like to go to on the map and then be navigated using GPS from the point they are at to the place of interest.

Prior to this users will have a chance to read up about the places of interest and read reviews posted by the website or on the social recommendation sites for example ‘I Know a Great Little Place...’ twitter feed that can be subscribed to direct to the users phone or PDA.

I believe this technology will be innovative for many reasons. Social recommendation applications for hospitality and tourism attractions do exist in the form of sites like Trip Advisor and also have mobile phone applications for users to browse place on a recommendation basis whilst on the go. The reason that my technology idea is innovative is that it recognises niche market areas as key attraction for consumers. Many consumers are driven to find places that they feel may not often be explored by the layman and find the sense of adventure an attractive prospect. It is for this reason also I have opted to use an immersive form of navigation system in the form of augmented reality so that the users feel completely integrated within the journey to their destination. It enables freedom of user choice, filters places they do not wish to go to and incorporates a vast array of industry sectors. Prior to visiting a place or if the consumer wishes to make their own recommendations the user is then able to upload there feedback to the ‘I Know a Great Little Place...’ website or twitter feed. Therefore the user can be involved in every aspect of the cycle; pre-trip, at the destination and post trip.