Along the Slovenian-Croatian border, there are more than 50 smaller historical towns with an abunding cultural heritage. The heritage in these places represents the main untapped potential for reviving their squares and streets. The challenge of kulTura project was to take advantage of this heritage and tourist trends to make more of them visit less developed border areas, so that small border towns are exposed and recognized alongside Zagreb, Ljubljana, Piran, Rovinj and other more prominent tourist cities in Slovenia and Croatia. As part of the project, we developed and tested an integral new cross-border tourist application (app) named kulTura for Jastrebarsko and Črnomelj, and we are now coordinating the app’s expansion to other under-represented towns. KulTura app offers a comprehensive way of discovering the heritage of small towns and is based on gamification, connects the local offer, provides interactive walks and local experiences, and enables digitally and AR (augmented reality) enhanced live encounters with historical characters and stories. The app is additionally supported by a cross-border digital bonus system and the app’s guided stories along the points of interests are tailored to people with physical disabilities.
KulTura is an example of a human-centered approach to application design, and by including the respective local communities, it is also deeply aware of the importance of approaching digitalization in a manner that provides a sustainable societal impact while building on existing (local) sources.

https://kul-tura.hr/

• Eastern Europe

• People with disabilities
• Remote and rural communities

KulTura app is an example of a good practice of a human-centred digital solution with an established potential to be transferred to other towns and regions, interested in innovative approaches to interpreting and discovering cultural heritage. The particular focus of the app is on tackling the digital and AR-enhanced representations of cultural heritage by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, including social sciences and the humanities, providing cultural experiences by deploying transdisciplinary expertise, which, given the pressing issues of high levels of inequality and environmental issues that manifest themselves globally, as well as locally, enables digitalization and technologies to contribute significantly to the sustainable development of local communities that are included in the project.

KulTura app is designed to ensure social and environmental sustainability now and in the future, while remaining within the environmental and social boundaries of the communities where it’s being introduced. By accounting for the local resources, provisions and aspirations of the inhabitants, sustainability of the KulTura app is heavily based on the contribution of ICT, digital technologies and storytelling to the local development by using the principles of iterative community-based-development and the co-creation of solutions appropriate for previously overlooked areas with a rich cultural heritage.
The app boasts a skillful integration of user-centred design principles on one hand and the technical prowess and innovations of the (mobile) digital technologies on the other. To be more concrete, we were proud to integrate location-specific quizzes and AR-enhanced challenges that also correspond with historic particularities of each town. Moreover, kulTura is specifically designed as a modular development model that can also be used in the case of other small historical border towns, and thus cross-border cooperation and the continuation of the project have been ensured. In fact, we are already conducting talks with new Slovenian municipalities to be included in the model.

By developing a comprehensive heritage discovery app and following the principles of user-centred design and working closely with the communities and local vendors, the WSIS’s principle that “usage and deployment of ICTs should seek to create benefits in all aspects of our daily life” is clearly demonstrated. Namely, it’s designed to engage and educate local residents and visitors to the included towns, but also connects them with local vendors where the app’s rewards can be redeemed. This provides multifaceted ways of addressing different social groups in the community. The app’s design also takes into account the awareness that “the benefits of the information technology revolution are today unevenly distributed between the developed and developing countries and within societies”, this is why the app is focused on overlooked smaller towns with the potential yet to be discovered and put forth for the benefit of everyone. Last but not least, KulTura project, and app in particular, have been designed with particular awareness that in designing ICT solutions, particular attention should be focused on special needs of marginalized and vulnerable groups of society; currently, the app reflects this in paying attention to persons with disabilities, with the note that plans for future development already includes the foundation to also include other groups, such as people with unequal access to goods, older persons, migrants, persons with vision impairment, the deaf or hard of hearing, and those with mental, learning and intellectual disabilities.