State-of-the-Art - Marcus Dypbukt Källman

One of the problems I learned from my interviews was the lack of signs and information when taking the ferry which makes apps with information and directions of Stockholm more useful. Even with the lacking amount of signs they weren't all translated into English, this sign that stated that passengers traveling to Skeppsholmen should tell the crew was only in Swedish.

 The first app that comes up when searching for “Stockholm” is a app by Stockholm stad called “Upptäck Stockholm”. It supposed to display all the exciting outdoor activities Stockholm has to offer and how to get there. The problem is that it doesn’t work, it crashes on startup and after reading a few reviews it seems I’m not the only one. The app hasn’t been updated since late 2014 and has a low 1,5 stars from reviewers with most of them complaining about it crashing. With it being the first search result and it not working it becomes a big problem for tourist who’s looking for a app to guide them through Stockholm. Even though the app doesn’t seem to target tourist but in fact people who live in Stockholm. I think they should first of all fix the crashes and secondly widen their target group to also include tourist searching for outdoor activities and to include indoor activities as well, like museums and such.  

Another app “Res I STHLM: SL reseplanerare” which allows the user to search how to travel with public transport between two locations. The app seems to target residents of Stockholm but is still very usable by tourists. A positive thing about this app is that it allows a search between two addresses and not only stops which makes it easier if you’re perhaps searching from your hotel to Skansen and don’t know the closest stop. The problem with this app is that since its focus lies on showing the fastest route it doesn’t display the more interesting route like ours, the ferry. I was only able to get the ferry as a suggestion if I started from Slussen but if I chose Gamla Stan or addresses closer to T-Centralen it suggested the train. Therefore, it’s hard for tourist who doesn’t know about the ferry to be able to find out about it.

Both of these apps require a internet connection which might be a problems for tourists. "Upptäck Stockholm" could be changed to only rely on GPS to guide you and use offline maps but seeing as Stockholms stad hasn't updated or fixed a major bug since 2014 it doesn't seem likely they'll try to improve the app. "Res I STHLM" relies on updated timetables to provide the best possible routes and is therefore hard to change to not need a internet connection.