Case Study:

Expo2025

Invisioning the digital experience for the World's Fair in Osaka, Japan

おもてなし

Omotenashi is the Japanese spirit of hospitality and mindfulness.

Osaka, Japan will play host to the next World's Fair for six months in 2025, with an expected 28+ million visitors descending on the world's tenth largest city and the Kansai region which includes Kyoto and numerous UNESCO World Heritage sites. Osaka also had the distinction of being the first Asian city to host the World's Fair in 1970, where they impressed the world with a sneak peak into the future, featuring all of the emerging technologies from Japan.

For the upcoming Expo the Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI) wanted to continue this tradition by welcoming the world and inspiring visitors with a vision for the future of society. An important component of this vision will be a website and mobile applications that will allow consumers to experience all that the Expo has to offer, and also serve as an opportunity to share more about the host country. For those present at the Expo site, a mobile app will offer wayfinding, discovery and notifications so that they can get the most out of their visit.

ROLE

Vision & Implementation

SCOPE

Conceptal Design, Visual Design, Editorial Content, Prototype Development

AUDIENCE

Visitors from all over the world

50m+

Potential end user reach

3

months [Spring 2023)

PROBLEM

Full of impressive pavilions, structures, large-scale events, live demonstrations and hundreds of thousands of visitors on any given day, an expo site can tend to feel like being dropped off in a new, overwhelming city. Visitors know there are interesting things to see and experience, yet they don't know where those may be in relation to where they stand. Additionally, local and national governments would like to encourage visitors to travel to other parts of Japan while they are at the Expo, yet there is not usually a convenient way to market directly to these people.

STRATEGY

One of the core goals of the digital experience is wayfinding, and tying that to the visitor's individual interests. The digital experience's navigation is anchored around a zoomable map, with the user's location identified via geolocation. Users can explore the expo via the map in advance of their visit and bookmark attractions of interest to be reminded of them when they are onsite and nearby.

An augmented reality mode allows users to use their phone's camera to identify where these attractions are, and also as a means to automatically translate expo signage into their native language (if it doesn't happen to be Japanese or English).

Additionally, users can interact with Myaku-Myaku, the expo mascot, as a AI-powered chatbot who can intelligently answer any of their questions about the expo or about Japan. Machine learning will be leveraged to feed the AI with all of the data about the expo that will not be available elsewhere such as on mapping applications.

SOLUTION

In fitting with METI's mission to promote trade and tourism to Japan, half of the application is dedicated to a 'Discover Japan' section, where users can learn more about Osaka, the surrounding Kansai region, and all of the prefectures of Japan. Users can choose between exploring Japan by the top tourist destinations, or regionally by prefecture. Hyperlapse photography that captures the beauty of the country inspires users to explore places they may have otherwise overlooked in tourist guides. Part of our business model concept was to have local governments sponsor their section with additional editorial-style promotional content (as shown in the Fukushima and Mount Fuji sections) to promote tourism. Exhibiting countries could also pay to sponsor additional editorial content about their nation (as shown in the Czech Republic example). With this concept, we proposed that the digital presence for the expo could be a profit center as opposed to a cost center.

The prototypes for both mobile and desktop were designed and built out in both English and Japanese, and feature original, realistic editorial content. It was a pleasure to be able to leverage my cultural and linguistic fluency in Japanese on this project, along with helping promote a city and country that I still call home.

Prototype Links:
Interactive desktop prototype
Interactive mobile prototype

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