Melbourne
night
in
early
2000's
&
Geolocated
mystery romance
Tonight Again
Tasks
Research
Concept Development
Location Analysis
Narrative Design
UX UI Design
Wireframing
Prototyping
User Testing
A geolocated mobile narrative app that takes a love story from early-2000s Melbourne and hides it inside the city, familiar places. Before people were constantly connected through mobile phones. Read the clues, walk the streets, and find out pieces of their heart.
Tools
Figma
Google map
Photoshop
Overview
The experience unfolds across ten selected Melbourne locations, where each stop reveals part of a hidden story. The app combines clue-solving interactions, arrival confirmation, ambient visuals, and an archive system to create a slower, more mysterious and emotional way of moving through Melbourne city after dark.
The
Idea
Given a brief to create a geolocated narrative app,
Instead of a city tour, I built a treasure hunt around a love story that set in early 2000's - Melbourne before mobile phones changed how people found each other. Across ten real CBD night venues, pub, restaurant that have been standing since then. You read the poetic scene, name the place right, navigate there and confirm arrival. Each stop unlocks the next chapter and a reward from that venue. Sun down, google map, no guidance except the story itself.
When I go out at night in the city , it's usually dinner or drinks, it does feel a bit repetitive sometimes
I pass the same places every day and never really see them. I just need someone to give me a reason to actually swing by
I'd love to discover new spots that I wouldn't normally notice actually, just haven't got a chance to do so
We always end up at the same bar because no one can think of anything to do better
There's so much history place in this city but now only a place to get drunk on the weekend night
All the platform just got the same top 10 list city dinner. I already know those places and they're always crowded
Research speaks:
Understanding the player and the city
Five Melbourne locals joined a focus group to talk about how they move through the city at night and the pattern was consistent. Most nights felt predictable, cycling through the same bars and the same routines, even in a city with as much to offer as Melbourne's CBD. That familiarity was the gap the design needed to fill.
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All 5 agreed clues needed to be short and poetic. Long text could kill the mood but if a story worth following, They'd stay for that.
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70% raised safety and walkability unprompted, which shaped every location choice toward central, well-lit, familiar streets.
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4 out of 5 responded positively to digital collectibles like a photo strip, a fortune cookie, a bookmark for something to hold onto after it ended
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All 5 saw it primarily as a date activity, though most said they'd try it with close friends too.
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All 5 were already confident navigating the CBD on foot, which meant clues could stay subtle and poetic. The city could do the work.
Design Challenge:
Empathise with
the users
User interviews and testing revealed a clear pattern, people knew Melbourne city had more to offer, but routine kept pulling them back to the same places. Most location-based apps weren't helping, either too guided or too game-like to feel like a real night out.
The real problem was how to build something with all the structure of a game without it ever feeling like one? The interface had to stay invisible enough for the story to breathe, but clear enough that people knew what to do next. The writing had to earn the walk. And the locations had to do emotional work, not just serve as coordinates.
The wider literature on locative media focuses almost entirely on museums and tourism. There was almost no guidance on designing for night-time urban exploration, or for storytelling that is intimate rather than educational. That gap was the opportunity.
Early brainstorming
Design process
I began by mapping how stories could live in real places. Early brainstorming linked Melbourne’s hidden corners like bookshops, rooftops, laneways to emotional moments of a fleeting night encounter. From there, I developed several mind maps and storyboards to connect each location to a narrative clue, visual tone, and potential reward.
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Secondary research into locative storytelling, Melbourne’s night culture, and mobile interaction patterns helped refine the concept and define my target audience, people who already move through the city after dark but seek something more meaningful than nightlife.I also tested early ideas with a few participants from this audience group, walking through proposed locations to evaluate atmosphere, accessibility, and story fit.
These findings guided the structure of the narrative and established the emotional rhythm of the treasure-hunt journey.
"
How might we transform familiar Melbourne night streets into an interactive story that feels nostalgic, mysterious, and worth uncovering?
"
Key design decisions
Short poetic
over direct
instruction
Research and focus group feedback both pointed the same way people didn't want to be told where to go, but to figure it out. Keeping clues short and poetic served two purposes: it preserved the story's atmosphere and forced players to actually think about the city rather than just follow directions. The clue had to describe a place without naming it, which meant every word had to carry narrative weight as well as informational value.
Let the city
do the
work
Audio in public can be distracting or feel awkward to use while walking: so there will be no QR scanning, no pointing camera while walking, nothing that would make them look like a tourist. The decision to strip the interface back to monochrome text, kept the story as the main focus. As users move closer to the location, a subtle vibration confirms they are near, without breaking the atmosphere. Let the city provides the sound, the light, the movement, and the night.
Arrival
confirmation
through navigation
Users confirm arrival by physically navigating to the location themselves, make the journey feel earned. Getting there was part of the story, not just puzzle game. Once players arrive, they unlock rewards tied to the place, such as discount coupons, digital collectibles, and saved memory fragments in the archive. This gave each stop a sense of payoff while keeping all locations connected to real historical venues, turning the city itself into the interface.
User flow diagram :
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The user
we design for
Persona
Tonight Again
A story-driven app that invites people to see Melbourne after dark in another layer as more than somewhere to get wasted.
The quieter side of the night, through an early - 2000s romance. Users piece together where each moment happened, then use in app navigation to reach the location, unlock rewards, and the next part of the story.
A different kind of night out
where Melbourne becomes the story.
Visual identity
that designed for a night-time interface : dark minimal paired with orange, just enough contrast against city night while keeping the focus on clues and journey.
JetBrains Mono reads as output rather than design. In Tonight Again, that's the point, the interface isn't guiding the user through a story, it's surfacing a record of one.
Usability testing
Field observations, key findings and design responses from real-world testing
Seven participants, 22–30, all regular CBD night visitors. Sessions ran across six real Melbourne locations between 6:30–9:30 pm. Participants used their own phones; the facilitator accompanied crossings for safety. Think-aloud feedback and post-session reflection were recorded on a secondary phone.
What I found :
Participants responded strongly to the story's intimacy and the feeling of rediscovering familiar spaces they already knew
I felt like going through someone's diary, not just a game that we just wanna win over. Interesting.
Quiet locations like The Paperback Bookshop created genuine immersion people paused, slowed down , read, and enjoy the vibe
Long text make me stop walking.
The app works better as a pair activity: Participants felt safer and more engaged with a companion.
It'd be fun doing this with my besties, we get to discuss and hob around
Coupon and collectibles landed as meaningful, not transactional. Participants described the photo strip and poetic notes as things they'd keep and share.
Iterations :
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Scroll cue added to clue and story pages
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Greeting text increased in size and contrast
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Clue text shortened for in-motion readability
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Venue hours shown in navigation so no one arrives after close
Task completion
success
100%
Result :
I've walked past these places a hundred times. But standing there figuring out those story clues changed how I see a place I thought I already knew
All participants completed the experience and emotionally connected with the story
The coupon is a nice bonus but honestly the memory card is what got me and I wanted to collect all of them, so cool!
This is new to me. I just followed along. Nothing felt like a step I had to figure out, it kind of moved me through itself.
We forget we're using an app and just feel like we're going through someone's diary, simple but not empty. Everything is just there when we need it.
100% of all participants completed the full experience without assistance
Quiet locations like The Paperback Bookshop and the bridge consistently produced the strongest emotional response across all sessions
60% of participants said unprompted they would return to the locations after the experience
The collectible system was described as a highlight by participants in both individual and pair sessions
Key takeaway
Tonight Again was a lesson in how much environment shapes experience. Early on I was focused on the interface screens, interactions, visual tone. Testing in the real city taught me that the design only works if it disappears into the surroundings. A clue that reads fine on a screen becomes a problem under streetlight. A moment of interface confusion pulls someone out of a story they were genuinely inside.
The project deepened my understanding of narrative UX - where the goal isn't usability for its own sake, but usability in service of atmosphere. Every refinement came back to the same question: does this protect the story or interrupt it?
To be continued
If Tonight again were to move to the next phase, here’s what I’d explore:
Designing time - sensitive story events tied to real Melbourne nights like New Year's Eve, winter solstice, late - night gallery openings where the city's mood becomes part of the narrative
Expanding the story across more of Melbourne's night, with branching narrative paths so repeat visitors discover something different the second time around
Developing a social layer around the collectibles - shared archives, couple or group modes, and the ability to leave a trace at a location for the next person who finds it