LookUp: Explore Your City

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  App Icon

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  Collection

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  Map

Inspiration

In my beautiful city of Glasgow we are blessed with a wealth of stunning architecture. I've always been a big proponent of the 'Glasgow is always more beautiful when you look up' view (admittedly it can be a bit grim if you keep your head down or at eye level..) and, as I stood waiting for my oat mocha outside my local coffee shop before work, staring up at a beautiful building I've admired for years, I realised I had absolutely no idea what kind of architectural style or influence it was. So that became the MVP, take a picture of a building and have the app tell me what kind of architectural style it was built in and what aspects I should remember so I can spot another of the same in future.

But that's pretty boring, and I soon realised google lens could already be used to do the same, so I decided to see if I could find out what the buildings were and the history behind them was… but that proved difficult, and ultimately it was never scalable. What I did realise on this journey was that there are a lot of buildings that are listed as protected buildings or are classed as landmarks themselves for various reasons, and that's when I pivoted to turning my city into a treasure hunt where the journey is discovering the city around you and the treasure is the discovery and education along the way.

What it does

LookUp: Explore Your city imports over 1M landmarks/monuments/palaces/mansions/bridges/towers/statues/city halls/plaques/stadiums/churches/chapels/memorials/castles/forts/libraries/hospitals/museums/galleries/stations/cinemas/theatres/mosques/skyscrapers/synagogues/halls and more from wikidata and other national/local heritage sites and turns them into sets for a user to collect by taking a picture of them. All of these discoverable landmarks come with a wealth of information about them, so as you uncover them you learn about what you're looking at.

Initially only the most popular landmarks in each city are visible and capturable, while the rest are hidden (it's not obvious what they are, but they are still marked as a '?' on the map). Once you capture one, it unlocks 3 more around you of the same kind for you to collect.

How we built it

I built this myself over 5-6 weeks from the end of August to mid September. It's built with React Native using Claude on a 2012 Macbook Pro running macOS Catalina. Because my laptop is so old I can't run Xcode or Claude CLI (and barely any other IDE for the matter..) so everything has been done within a Github codespace. Shout out to Expo and Github! It's mainly been built over evenings and weekend and occasionally on my commutes to work by accessing the codespace from my browser on my iPhone SE (lol).

Challenges we ran into

Various pivots, e.g. trying to incorporate a skyline feature that allowed a user to hold their phone up and get a layout of the most popular landmarks on their app, technical challenges, app store reviews, trying to test effectively on an iPhone that can barely turn on.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm really pleased with the overall design as well as something in particular that I think is really unique; for the tier-1 landmarks that have been imported, if they are of a sufficient size and scale, I have created unique 2D silhouettes of them using laser satellite scan data.

What we learned

Build a painkiller, not a vitamin (if you want to make money anyway). If you want to build something for the sake of it, make something you're proud of so it's worth the time and effort. The importance of keywords for ASO. What your app does isn't necessarily what a user types. Marketing has always been the moat. Making internet money is still not easy! My ADHD is a superpower and hackathons give me the urgency I need. There is still time and opportunity to succeed.

What's next for LookUp

Releasing on Android devices. I'm still working on improving the funnel and overall offering. There is a lot of improvement to be made with marketing efforts, increasing downloads and improving conversion/trial to paid rates. I think I need to lean into the social aspect more so I'm exploring what features what would fit LookUp.

Built With

• expo.io