Gelpme aims to help travelers move along navigating landmarks and places of interest via their iPhones. Argo does a PC eval of a new travel app with great potential.
Signup via Facebook is snappy, as travelers should come to expect from any mobile tool these days. Using Open Graph tech, Gelpme also knows right where I am as I sign up and begin to fill in the blanks too.
The image below is the second step in the process. But beyond simple bells and whistles, apparently the developers at Gelpme have some ethereal sensibilities too. Read on.
Gelpme knows where I am
Next, Geltpme prompts the user to go deep, deep, deep into the world of recollection, joy, travel magic. I quote the prompt to share below:
1. Close your eyes and recall your most awesome fantastic terrific delightful trip.
2. Now, recall your very very very brightest impression from that trip.
3. Share those experiences with other travelers.
Gelpme asks signups to share these once in a lifetime experiences, a task I found enjoyable both from the user experience and as a personal recollection. Sharing Copenhagen and Mihaela’s and my marriage stay, an image of the cool Baltic, was a nice touch. Then Gelpme whisks new users away to the dashboard. It is here I had a little bit of a negative reaction. Even though Gelpme’s service is very complete, something about the dashboard for users is off. Maybe it is the color, maybe it’s the character and size of the interface buttons? Whatever the cause, the dashboard is more cumbersome to navigate (grasp) than most iPhone apps.
The image below, with highlights in red, attempts to show what I mean with this one negative.
Gelpme's buttons and interface could be better.
The tone of color and design of Gelpme probably has a little to do with where and for whom primarily the app was made. Vladimir Filipyev, CEO and Founder, his team, are from the Russian Federation. While not much has been made of Gelpme’s origins, it’s pretty clear the app is Russian. Some of the world’s best developers and coders are from the federation, and of course the design gives away a hint too.
The app is supposed to be all about “peak travel experiences”, and it does show all the earmarks of being capable to cataloging and sharing them. However, looking at what I think is one of Gelpme’s best features, the world map with G pins, two things become apparent. First, the app is very good for showing cool impressions from a great number of users, potentially. Second, there are not a great number of users so far.
The Gelpme map feature - sparse Earth population
As is the case with any social app, without the people in the mix, any user is going to feel pretty much alone holding their iPhone staring into oblivion. Sorry to say, other travel companies have made dynamic headway into this space. Gelpme’s best bet is to get 20 million Russian users, then branch out. Just my view for now.
We rate Gelpme at this stage.
Good App – Gelpme has most of the needed tools, but the user base makes using the app a mediocre experience. Further development and some marketing should make this travel tool a lot more fun and useful. (try Gelpme at iTunes via that link)
