Building a flexible trail app around a moving real-world event.

A public art trail brings together physical locations, artwork, sponsors, rewards and event information, all of which can continue changing close to launch.

Amaze needed a lightweight app that could accommodate those moving parts without making the experience feel complicated. It had to help a broad family audience quickly understand where to go, what to look for and how to record their progress.

The delivery plan also needed to account for final sculpture images, locations, codes and sponsor content arriving after the main build was underway.

We kept the experience focused on four simple actions: discover sculptures, find them on the map, log each visit and follow your progress.

The app opens on a welcoming homepage rather than dropping visitors directly onto a map. This gives Amaze space to orient users, share important announcements and highlight ways to support or get involved with the event.

Visitors can then switch between map and list views, search the trail and clearly distinguish between large BookBenches and smaller grouped sculptures.

Each sculpture has its own page containing artwork, location, artist and sponsor information. Visitors enter a code found at the BookBench to record their visit and see their progress update.

Grouped smaller benches can share a single code, making the experience easier to manage at locations containing several sculptures.

Rewards unlock progressively, from finding a first sculpture through to completing the full trail. Milestone rewards and sculpture-specific offers give visitors more reasons to keep exploring, while external redemption and competition pages keep the app itself clear and focused.

We structured the project around a staged content and release plan.

Design and development began with placeholder content, allowing the core product to be built and tested before final photography, sponsor details and reward information were available. Content could then be added through planned handovers without holding up the wider delivery.

Test builds were shared with Amaze for structured user acceptance testing across iOS and Android. Feedback covering homepage clarity, map behaviour, sponsor information, reward filtering and the BookBench logging journey was reviewed and resolved ahead of release.

The Story Trail app creates a practical digital layer for a physical experience, helping visitors navigate the trail without distracting from the artwork, the city or the cause behind it.

By combining focused product design with a flexible delivery approach, we gave Amaze an app shaped around the realities of a live event and ready to support families exploring Brighton & Hove from 10 September 2026.