Arnaud and Fabien, could you start by sharing what inspired you to create Visorando, and how did the idea evolve into the platform we know today?
We both like hiking.
Fabien: As a mountain guide, I've been leading hiking groups around France for many years. In 2010, I was looking for a way to simplify the process of preparing hiking routes and sharing them with others. I approached my cousin Arnaud, an IT engineer, and asked him to develop a website to prepare and share my walks. Fortunately, he agreed and successfully created the platform.
Arnaud: In 2012, we observed a significant increase in the usage of the tools we had developed, with many users spending a substantial amount of time on the website. Recognizing the high potential, I initiated work on our SEO strategy. Visorando's visibility improved, both through online searches and word-of-mouth recommendations.
We then established a vibrant hiker's community, where people appreciated the opportunity to share their hikes and explore others' routes. Right from the start, our focus has been on ensuring high-quality content. Each walk is thoroughly reviewed by a dedicated team of volunteer walking enthusiasts before being published on the website and app. Community participation is also encouraged, enabling users to share their experiences and rate the walks, contributing to the continuous enhancement and updating of our hike database.
Today, Visorando stands as the most popular walking app in France, and we are even expanding the concept internationally.
How does the integration of the 'Waze of the outdoor' concept enhance the user experience on the Visorando app, and what challenges did you face in developing this feature?
With this new feature, hikers can receive real-time signals about dangers and other issues along their route, allowing them to better prepare for their hikes. These signals are visible on the map within the app, enabling hikers to modify or adjust their plans before embarking on their journey.
One of the main challenges in developing this feature was to create a tool that encourages user participation, as the community’s involvement is essential to the success of this feature. We needed to provide hikers with a straightforward and intuitive interface, inspiring them to contribute actively by sharing real-time information.
Additionally, it was crucial to identify and define the most relevant categories of incidents to ensure the information remains comprehensive yet concise. Striking this balance was challenging, as we wanted to cover various potential hazards and issues without overwhelming users with too many options.
With the participatory model allowing users to signal dangers, how has the community engagement been so far, and what are some significant examples where community input has improved hiking safety?
The community has really embraced this feature, using it frequently for all different kinds of warnings. You have the option to report an ongoing hunt, for instance. This allows fellow users to modify their routes as needed, or opt for a different hiking trail than originally planned.
As the feature is still relatively new, we can't definitively say yet whether it has significantly improved hiking safety.
However, given our existing moderation process and highly engaged community, hikers often provide ratings and alert us to any issues they encounter during their hikes. We then add a warning to the hike to inform other hikers when a trail is temporarily closed or requires some adjustments.
Could you explain the role of the moderation team in maintaining the quality of hiking routes and ensuring the accuracy of danger reports submitted by users?
At Visorando, each hike is verified by a dedicated team of volunteer moderators. Before a suggested hike is published on Visorando, three different people meticulously cross-check the description and map to ensure accuracy. As explained before, our community actively provides feedback on the hikes, allowing us to promptly address any issues that arise.
Our new feature for reporting dangers functions more like Waze. Users can report hazards, such as fallen trees along a hike, and fellow hikers can verify these reports. This approach mirrors the functionality of Waze, where users can signal a car accident and others can confirm its presence as they pass by. We haven't implemented an internal moderation process for this feature yet, but we’re working on it.
Visorando has a global reach—how do you adapt your service to meet the varied environmental and cultural hiking conditions across different countries?
In our team, we have individuals who are either native from our target countries or have lived there for a significant part of their lives. So they are familiar with the environmental and cultural hiking conditions in the different countries. Their frequent fieldwork enables us to gather valuable feedback, which in turn helps us tailor our approach for the international markets.
What innovations do you foresee in the integration of technology in outdoor activities, and how is Visorando positioning itself to lead in this space?
We believe that harnessing AI intelligently will be a game changer for us, allowing us to analyze user tracks more effectively and enhance the quality of our hiking recommendations. Additionally, the integration of 3D technology promises to be a significant advancement. Research and development are crucial to our mission, and we are currently looking for a PhD student to contribute to this project.
Since its inception, Visorando has been driven by its community, and we are convinced that this proximity with our users keeps us at the forefront of this industry.
Reflecting on your journey with Visorando, what has been the most rewarding aspect of watching the app's evolution, and how do you envision its future impact on the hiking community worldwide?
In our constant pursuit of improving our services for the website and the app, it's just great to see the evolution we've undergone since the beginning of Visorando. It's difficult to pinpoint a single rewarding aspect, as it's the everyday progress that truly makes us proud of our product.
We firmly believe that by maintaining a focus on delivering high quality and continuously looking for technological advancements, all while keeping the human element central to the hiking experience, we can find our place within the global hiking community.
To download this great app : https://www.visorando.com/
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