Passepartout. A solution for urban tourism in Shanghai

Shanghai is a modern and vibrant city and has seen a growth in tourism, both national and international. The city had many services and infrastructure to receive this flow of tourism, but still it is very difficult for a foreigner, due to linguistic barrier, lack of time and lack of connections, to enjoy the experience at his best. On a hand the offer for both touristic attraction and places in Shanghai is very wide, and most of all, it covers all the needs of visitors, offering different ranges of quality, pricing and experience. On the other hand a huge offer can paralyze or confusing, resulting in a messy experience, not up to expectations, loss of time, and, in worse cases, frustration. Thanks to the spreading of mobile devices, visitors can navigate easily tough the city. can access to datas and social network , can share their discoveries, they can plan their journey and change the schedule whenever they want. Mobile devices are a key element to improve the livability of the city, for foreigners, as well as for local people. I focused on the development on an application for mobile devices that allows enhancing a better experience of Shanghai. Developing a successful service for tourism of this kind means to deep understand the needs of the users, create a innovative system to deliver them the information, and designing an attractive and easy-to-understand interface. This dissertation follows the designing process of the app. The tools used for the process are: survey, shadowing, rough prototyping, scenario description, personas, focus groups and in-context immersion. The result is the development of a an app called "The Circle", an hybridization between a social network and a database of places. The app allows users to add people and places to their circle of knowledge in order to find new places thanks to a customized matching criteria. The thesis ends with a proposal about future development and diffusion. Developing a personalized service for tourism mean not only to improve the quality of one own's journey, and as a consequence diffusing a better perception of Shanghai