About the app

In the 2019 run of the Living Pasts course, students have developed the very first Living Pasts prototype. Please note that this is a work in progress, which will be further expanded in the next iterations of the course.

The application was developed to be smartphone-based, but should work fine on any computer with Google Chrome installed. It currently contains 13 stories about De Neude.

How the app works

The Living Pasts prototype is split into two main views, the Map View, and the Story View. Users can use the two buttons at the bottom to switch between the two.

Buttons to switch between Map View and Story View
Use these buttons to switch between the Map View and the Story View.

Map View

Overview of Neude stations
An overview of some stations at De Neude.

In the Map View you will mainly be exploring. By default, you will be in Overview mode, meaning you have access to all 13 stories in the Story View. If you click on the black circular button in the top left, you will switch to Immersive mode, where you are only allowed to view stories if you are close enough to a “station”. Stations can be anything with a location in the real-world, like the Thinker on a Rock statue, or the De Beurs building for example. These stations are visually represented by a 3D model or a red cone.

Story View

In the Story View you get access to the stories. In the prototype, there are currently five different types of stories:

  1. Article: A written text with (occasional) images. Example: Post office.
  2. Audio: An article (written text and images), accompanied by a voice-over. Example: De Liefde’s Centraal Apotheek.
  3. Dialogue: An interactive (partly fictional) experience, where a branching storyline can be explored. Example: A gruesome murderer.
  4. External: A link to another (external) website containing relevant information. Example: De zuivelmarkt op de Bakkerbrug.
  5. Video: A (link to) a video containing relevant information. Example: Op weg naar de Bibliotheek Neude.
Interactive branching story example
An example of an interactive story accessible in the Story View.

Please note that the author selection button and the time range slider are currently non-functional, and only serve as a placeholder for future work.