Dezeen Magazine

Dezeen in Field Trip by Google

Dezeen in Field Trip by Google

Dezeen has teamed up with Google for today's UK launch of the Field Trip app, which provides contextual information about your surroundings via your smartphone.

Dezeen has been working closely with the Google in San Francisco for the past three months to geo-tag a selection of relevant stories from our archive. This content, including posts about architecturally interesting buildings, shops, bars, restaurants and more, is now available to users of Field Trip in both the UK and the USA.

Dezeen in Field Trip by Google

Designed to make you "feel like a local wherever you go", Field Trip throws up stories relevant to the user's position from a range of publishers including Dezeen, Time Out and Hidden London, and can even read them out to you as you walk or drive around.

"The notion is that I can take a stroll through the streets of London and the application will automatically surface a card," said John Hanke, the head of mapping at Google, in an interview with Dezeen. "If I had a headset connected it can actually read that information to me.

He added: "If I'm walking by a place that Dezeen has written about - it might be a piece of architecture or it might be a really cool local shop, it might be a great coffee shop, or some other piece of design - it will tell me about that without me having to constantly be doing searches or interrogating an app."

Dezeen in Field Trip by Google

Field Trip will soon be rolled out in other countries, meaning users will be able to access Dezeen stories about buildings anywhere in the world.

"When you're out moving through the world, when one of those stories is about a place that's near you, it's incredibly useful and relevant," said Hanke.

For example, using the app near Dezeen's offices in east London brings up our stories on David Adjaye's Dirty House in Hackney and the NikeFuel Station at Boxpark in Shoreditch, as shown in the screen grabs here.

Dezeen in Field Trip by Google

Originally launched for the US in September, the app works on Android devices and you can download it here. An iOS version is coming soon.

"I'm a huge fan of Dezeen and its great coverage of global design community, and we're delighted to be working with you,' Hanke added. Read the full interview with him here.