Building a travel tech app wasn't just a coding challenge for me (i barely know how to code); it was a way to process grief.
Eight years ago, I wrote down a business canvas for an app that would kill the traditional "guided tour". I hated rigid schedules, and I hated arriving at a beautiful natural trail only to find a faded tourist sign from 1998. I wanted a pocket guide. But life got in the way, and the idea stayed in a drawer.
Recently, I lost my mother. She was the person who instilled in me a deep curiosity for the history that surrounds us. Grieving is a strange process. For me, it meant finally sitting down, opening my IDE, and turning that 8-year-old idea into reality as a tribute to her.
I built YouGuide: a mobile app that uses background geolocation to trigger audio stories. You put your headphones on, lock your phone, and walk. When you reach a historical monument or a trail, the app tells you its story.
As a solo dev from Argentina, the challenges were huge:
Data Collection: I manually mapped and curated over 600 historical and natural points across 90 cities.
UX/UI: Designing an interface meant to be ignored (the goal is for users to look at the landscape, not the screen).
What’s Next?
I just launched the Beta version (it's 100% free). My current stack relies on tracking early user events to see where the drop-offs are during the onboarding flow.
Building in public is new to me, but I wanted to share this milestone. If you are building geolocation apps or just love traveling, I’d be incredibly grateful if you could check out YouGuide and give me your most brutal feedback.
Link to the project is on my profile. Thanks for reading!
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