dog

Apps To Get Lost With: Trace

Trace is the third in a trio of walking apps that I’m putting to the test. And, yes, it involves a dog.

Compared to Drift or Likeways, Trace calls for a high degree of user interaction with the app and, optionally, collaboration with others using the app.

Developed at the Tactile and Tactical Design Lab (TAT Lab) at the University of Washington., the app was designed to explore the role of GIS (geographic information systems) technology in shifting our walking habits away from efficiency and towards communication and reflection.

It all starts with a sketch drawn on the screen of a smartphone, a simple line drawing that the app then transfers to a mapped route for the walker to follow.

Here’s how it works. (more…)

A Dog Goes West: Part Three

It is a slow but beautiful road winding its way from Kelowna south down Highway 33 and then east along Highway 3. Styxx reclines in his lair – pretty much the entire rear compartment of our Prius. Occasionally he takes a look out the side or rear windows to examine the endless forests occasionally punctuated with the jagged grey peaks of mountains in the distance. Along the way, we stop at wayside pullouts to stretch, to have a picnic lunch or to take a close look at some stream with clear cool water noisily rushing over a bed of river-smoothed rocks. (more…)