[App Fridays] Nomad - A beautiful app for the perfect weekend getaway

With the weekend approaching fast and a hard week behind you, there are quite a few of those who’d probably be looking forward to a weekend

 getaway. Bangalore is blessed to be around with some truly amazing places, most of which are a few hours away by road. Choosing a place to go to will take up a considerable amount of brain time and can be strenuous as well. You’d either have to ask a friend or resort to the internet and blogs which would have some information about places you’d like to visit.This was Harsha M V’s itch. The founder of Mink7 and Bakasura and his team decided to scratch it by making an app. They did such a good job of it, that it is today’s app Friday. Nomad is one of the best designed Android apps that we’ve got our hands on and through this review, you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about.

What is it?

Nomad is an Android app which provides a list of destinations near Bangalore for a weekend getaway. It is a listing of places to visit, which can be sorted alphabetically, by category or by distance from your current location.

Each element in the list has relevant information and pictures about the place. It also has a map view which, along with showing you the place in Google maps, will navigate you to the destination.

Who is it for?

Nomad is primarily targeted to the regular smartphone user looking for advice on places to visit. Most of these places are within a 300

Km radius of Bangalore, which makes the app a perfect adviser for a short trip over a weekend.This app will also be very useful for those coming to Bangalore on a business trip with some spare time and for tourists who’d like to explore a new place on their own. As the app picks up some traction and information for other cities is added, another set of users who can benefit from this are users of tours and travels services.

What works

This is a beautifully designed app. The icons and the colour schemes are well designed and chosen. Each place is assigned with an icon which depicts what you can do there. For example, Skandagiri is a trekking spot and the icon for it is a mountain peak. Kabini is a wildlife area and the icon for it is a bear and so on.

What really works for us is that the simplicity of the app’s function. Many of the apps that we have seen try to do too many things. This is the main reason why such apps have a short product lifecycle; users really don’t have that one reason to come back to the app. Nomad has no problems in this area. Within a few days of using it, I was recommending this app to everyone who wanted advice on places to visit.

By limiting the app’s function, the app also feels very light and barring a few force closes (the app is still in beta), the overall experience

of using the app has been a pleasure.What doesn’t work

There is not much there is wrong with Nomad at the moment. There are some instances where it crashes, but that’s a given with a beta and the app is only going to get better over time. One of the problems of getting an app so right in the first attempt is that from now on making changes and building features on the app has to be done very carefully.

While Nomad is a great app, what might be undesirable for this app is adding any more features. This isn’t my call to make, but there are so many apps that have died away because of adding more features. Nomad is a very easy to use app and if features must be added, it shouldn’t compromise on the great user experience that the app has.

Conclusion

I like how this app has been built to solve a problem. Nomad is very clear about its function from the first time you open the app and from thereon, the app is an absolute pleasure to use.

The source of information on the app is locally collected from friends and acquaintances. In the long run, this model might not scale well and Harsha has shared

that there will be platform where the information will be crowd sourced.Ads would totally ruin this app. Being such a solid app, Nomad will get its users and people wouldn’t be shy of recommending this app to others. Alternate revenue models such as, tying up with tours and travel agencies which would help them engage with their clients via smartphones, can be tried out.

Overall, it is a great app, and you should definitely give it a shot.

Download Nomad for help with a weekend getaway.