Project List

GSD&M Avoid Humans

A web-based application that combed data from Foursquare check-ins and returned the nearest businesses with the least amount of humans.

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Implementation

  • Frameworks:

    • Bootstrap
    • jQuery

  • Languages:

    • PHP
    • JavaScript
    • CSS
    • HTML

  • APIs:

    FourSquare

  • Design:

    Responsive

  • Source Control:

    GIT

About the Project

Every year the SXSW festival happens in Austin, Texas. And every year GSD&M creates a digital product focused on the festival. For several years, they created various blog sites featuring favorite SXSW panels, favorite locations to hang out in Austin, and even a surrogate site for those who couldn’t attend the festival to still share some of the experience.

To the locals, the term SXSW has become synonymous with “overcrowding”, “traffic nightmare”, and “work from home” as tens of thousands of people flood the streets of downtown Austin. So in 2014 we had the idea of creating a web app to “Avoid Humans” — an app that could tell users where NOT to go if they wanted a quiet place to get away from the crowds.

The Solution

The app uses Foursquare data and your device’s location to display the closest places with the fewest people, filtered by food, bars, coffee shops and parks. Green, red, and yellow indicators display where to go versus where to avoid.

While the initiative was targeted to the SXSW festival, the site can actually work in any location where people actively check in on Foursquare.

Awards

  • 2015 Adweek Project Isaac Award: Class of Genius Creations
  • 2015 National Addy’s Digital Creative Technology: Silver Award Winner
  • 2015 One Show Mobile Finalist
  • 2015 District Addy Silver Award Winner
  • 2015 Austin Addy’s Digital Advertising: Web-Based App, Gold Award Winner
  • 2015 Austin Addy’s Elements of Advertising: GPS & Location Technology, Gold Award Winner
  • FWA Mobile Site of the Day 6/6/2014
  • Shortlisted in four, mobile, 2014 Cannes Lion categories

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