Ennis Elbe-Abenteuer: Family-friendly web app for regional tourism

Creating experiences for the young target group with Micro Adventures

Kurs Elbe, a consortium of six districts, wants to establish the Elbe between Hamburg and Wittenberge as an attractive tourist destination for the whole family and is taking creative digital paths to achieve this. Together with Oliver Puhe, tourism consultant and innovation coach, and us, a web app was created in which families can find excursion destinations around the Elbe and complete so-called micro adventures - small tasks and activities - on site.

The digital offering is accompanied in a child-friendly way by mascot Enni, a talking drop of water who knows the Elbe inside out. Enni leads the way to the micro-adventures on site and tackles them together with the children. For each adventure passed, water drops can be collected in a bottle. The experiences are supplemented by tidbits of knowledge about the region and short radio plays with Enni. An interactive, playful experience that also whets the little ones' appetite for repeated excursions to the region.

Mobile website combines design and functionality

Simple UI, motivating UX, exciting activities: An app for the whole family has to meet many requirements. Based on the idea of Oliver Puhe's Micro Adventures, we developed a mobile website that is tailored to the young target group in terms of design and handling, but also meets the requirements of adult users in terms of functionality and performance.

At its core, the web app is location-based. It records the user's location and shows which microadventures are nearby and how to get there. The adventures are arranged as a stack of cards that you can simply "swipe" through - the closest adventure is on top. If you are near an activity, it is activated and can be performed. When completing an activity, the user is again offered interaction options, for example the suggestion to take and send a photo. All activities that have been completed are collected in the app and displayed together on a map.

Which microadventures are available in the app is up to the tourism organizations. Before the app release, they have already defined a large number of activities. Via a backend system that we developed, they can maintain existing activities and add new ones in the future. This keeps the product exciting and up-to-date over a long period of time.

Through its reward system, the app also potentially offers the possibility to involve local tourism service providers. If a few activities are completed in the app and so many drops of water are collected that the bottle is full, a reward is due. This can currently be collected from one of the project offices, but could also include gastronomic offers in the region, such as a scoop of ice cream from the nearby ice cream parlor.

Promote tourism with web apps

Lean in development, easy to use, and motivating storytelling for the target group: Ennis Elbe Adventure combines the advantages of web apps with exciting content that is perfectly tailored to the target group. The app is ready to use on the go, as it requires no installation, supports free exploration of the Elbe region with its map stack function, and its motivating interaction elements make people want to go on excursions again and again - both young and old.

The Kurs Elbe project set itself the goal of making the section of the Elbe between Hamburg and Wittenberge more attractive as an excursion destination - especially for children. Together, we created the web app "Enni's Elbe Adventure," a digital tool that makes it possible to experience the region through small adventures.

Why does this work so well?

The web app

• makes it easy to find destinations and the way there
• provides entertainment for the little ones with its Micro Adventures
• is designed for children and easy to use
• motivates with its reward system for repeated use
• is immediately ready for use as a web app without installation

Explore the web app