Visit the Google Play store, the iTunes Store or email us at
trace-project@uw.edu to download Trace on any Android or iPhone!
Rosner, Daniela, Hidekazu Saegusa, Jeremy Friedland, and Allison Chambliss. “Walking by Drawing” To appear in Proceedings of the ACM conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’15).
Trace is a TATLab and FizzLab project that explore how GIS-routing might be designed to emphasize guided wandering over destination-oriented travel. We developed Trace as a mobile mapping application that generates walking routes based on digital sketches people create and annotate without a map. In addition to creating walking paths, Trace enables people to send the paths to others, thus developing a unique form of digital communication. While today’s navigation apps lead users from one point to the next (much like connect-the-dots games), we wonder how traveling the city could feel more improvisational (like freehand sketching or letter writing), prompting new forms of expression and insight.
To draw a Trace (from left to right above): (a) touch the “DRAW” button, (b) drawn an image, (c) add one or more annotations by selecting an area of the drawing, (d) add text or media (image, audio) to your annotation, (e) provide a title and description for the trace to send and save.
To walk a Trace (from left to right above): (a) touch the“WALK”button, (b) select the duration of the walk, (c) follow directions provided on the application and use the switch to toggle off the automatically updated directions (based on GPS signal), view annotations along the way, (d) walk the trace, and (e) view your completed walk.
Android Trace Team:
Tianchi Liu, Sona Grigoryan, Sol Choi, Shuye Huang, and Xinghao Li
iPhone Trace Team:
Hidekazu Saegusa, Jeremy Friedland, and Allison Chambliss.
Email us at
trace-project[at]uw.edu to download Trace on any Android or iPhone!