Back

Block Island: a complete tourist guide, in an app.

on 

Gathering all the information needed to discover Block Island is the idea that Rob Lucier and his nephew Will Gasner had. We are delighted that GoodBarber has enabled them to make their project a reality. We have the pleasure to present you this great app, as well as Rob's feedback on the features used and his experience with GoodBarber.

Rob and Will’s goal was above all to promote Block Island. This island, which is one of the finest destinations on the East Coast of the United States, offers marvelous beaches and is part of National Geographic's "50 World's Last Great Places - Destinations of a Lifetime". There, time seems to have stopped, and the only tourist resources available are in paper format. The ambition of Rob and his nephew was to offer contemporary tools to enhance their island.

They immediately thought about an app because they wanted above all to allow their users to enjoy their tool from anywhere, with or without connection. They chose to offer two versions of their app: Native and PWA, so their content can be seen on any screen.

"We looked at a variety of tools that make native apps and PWAs. In our selection process, we have the tools for ease of use, design capabilities, breadth of features - coupons, loyalty cards, geo-fencing, etc. After doing lots of research and testing we decided to choose GoodBarber thing. The key things we liked were the clean look, solid documentation, tight integration with WordPress and other tools including, push notification, coupons, and the ability to support advertising.”
- Rob Lucier

Rob and Will have made the most of GoodBarber's potential by using its CMS to both create their content and have more customizable sections that allowed their app to be as complete as possible.

The Block Island app provides visitors with all the resources and information needed to enjoy the island: ferry timetables, restaurants, bars, shopping, places to visit, local news, weather and tide tools, events to come, etc. It's all of Block Island in the palm of your hand.
 

Here are the main sections they used to create their app:

MAP

Block Island is a tourist guide so what better than a map to present its content? Things to do, transport, accommodation, or services are organized in the app, including thorough Menu sections, allowing ultra fluid navigation in an app full of content.


 

 

COUPONING

Discount coupons are highly appreciated by users in this kind of “guide” app. Rob and Will did not miss out on this feature and offer discounts in the various businesses in the region. It’s a great way for them to reward their users.


 

CUSTOM

The Block Island app is unique and for good reason! It contains several Custom sections. A good source of inspiration that allows you to see what is possible to create with this type of section:
- National News
- Quiz
- Meteo, etc.
 

Take a look at the video at the bottom of this article to see what it looks like ;)

 

GEOFENCING

This is an advanced feature that can be very relevant in a tourist app. Here, it is used to encourage users to stop at certain tourist destinations according to their location in relation to a defined geographical area. Imagine all the strategies that could be created around geofencing …

 
"We feel the advantages of GoodBarber are a great balance of aesthetic-driven and user-friendly features. We were able to build a version of the entire app in under 2 months. We have been able to evolve the app steadily. In our first 3 months since our launch on July 4th 2018 we have had over 2500 downloads and over 125,000 page/screen views. We expect this to grow substantially in 2019 as we continue to promote the Block Island App.”
- Rob Lucier


Discover the Block Island app in video:

Your project deserves the best tools. Let’s start your app creation !