WWI: digital exploration of history

Business context

Westtoer is a tourism organisation from West Flanders whose mission is to develop sustainable tourism in the region. Working with local partners, it seeks tools that both promote cultural heritage and improve the visitor experience.

Traditional visits to historical sites relied on guidebooks, museums and on-site tours. Growing user expectations towards digital solutions created an opportunity for a more immersive and accessible way to discover history.

Westtoer wanted to harness the potential of mobile devices to bring stories of the First World War to life and enable audiences to independently explore key locations across Belgium. The goal was to combine educational value with the promotion of responsible tourism in the region.

Challenge

The challenge was to design an engaging application that educates users about the most important First World War sites in Belgium in an accessible way — presenting reliable descriptions, historical context and interesting facts.

A key requirement was to integrate rich content with intuitive navigation and attractive data presentation, so users could quickly find points of interest and understand their significance.

To reach a broad audience, the solution needed to work consistently across multiple mobile platforms, offering smooth performance and a unified experience.

Solution

Using Xamarin, the WWI app was developed as a mobile guide to memorial sites from the First World War period. The application combines a catalogue of locations with clear information cards containing descriptions, data and interesting facts, creating an engaging historical narrative.

Users can take virtual walks through selected points on the map, learn the context of events and plan future visits on site. The intuitive interface and interactive elements make it easy to explore the content regardless of prior knowledge.

The use of Xamarin ensured a consistent experience across multiple platforms while maintaining a shared codebase, which simplified the app’s development and maintenance.