Lightning Pitch: Urban Walks – A better way to explore New York

COMPANY: Urban Walks

ELEVATOR PITCH

A better way to explore New York.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DESCRIPTION

There’s no other city in the world like New York. We wanted Urban Walks to be the kind of app that would allow visitors and curious locals to see New York the way we do—a city of larger- than-life characters, historical dramas, breathtaking architecture, and rich cultures.

We put a lot of loving care into this app, and we hope that people will enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed creating it.

To create Urban Walks we needed unique, interesting content. There’s so much information about New York, and it is very easy to get lost and spend a lot of precious vacation time trying to find the right content. We work with multiple writers and tour guides in the City to put together best routes that are joyful to walk within an hour or two and learn something new.

From a design and user experience perspective, we spent quite a lot of time getting all the interactions right, so we could make sure it’s optimized for using while viewing and walking in offline mode when no cellular connection is available—which of course is key for travelers. We walked around for each of the tours to photograph all the landmarks and even spent weeks making a custom map along with custom icons. Yes, custom.

Though it is a hand-crafted experience, Urban Walks is a completely scalable system and built to support more tours (that are going to be added monthly) and even be expanded to other cities in all parts of the world.

Rather than creating another city guide and adding more noise to that group of apps, we decided to do something unique and special. We wanted interesting, custom content which would entice even the most jaded New Yorker to walk around and explore, and we wanted a beautifully designed experience that would be custom-made for New York and its landmarks.

FOUNDERS

Danil Krivoruchko – Creative director with a varied background in digital production based in New York City.

Anton Repponen – Designer and photographer based in New York City. Anton has been working in the digital industry for over 12 years, eight of those as a global creative director at an interactive agency in New York.

Hyperboloid Team – Development team based in Moscow. With a strong background in building mobile applications for various prominent clients, Hyperboloid plays an essential role in our project by taking our idea, design, and stories and turning them into something tangible that users would love to have on their phones while visiting New York.

HEADQUARTERS: New York City

WEBSITE: www.urban-walks.com

YEAR FOUNDED: 2014

TWITTER: @urban_walk

FACEBOOK: facebook.com/urbanwalksapp