WildEcho: Redefining Wildlife Tourism Through Sound
A GLIMPSE AT BEHIND THE SCENE
My Main Role in the Team
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UX & Service Designer –
End-to-End Ownership
Figma
Premiere Pro
Canva
Client： Stampede
Duration： 6 months
Brief
WildEcho: A Sound-Driven Travel Innovation
WildEcho is an innovative service integrating sound technology, wildlife conservation, and responsible travel. Using an app and bone conduction headphones, WildEcho enhances auditory perception to complement visual exploration, allowing tourists to engage more deeply with their surroundings, capture and share their travel memories, and minimise disturbance to wildlife.
Achievements
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Led experience design strategy to shift tourist behaviour from photography to immersive listening
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Developed and tested sound-based alternatives that reduced ecological disruption during travel
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Prototyped and validated a series of low-intervention, high-impact touchpoints along the travel journey
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Collaborated with guides and local tourism stakeholders to ensure contextual adaptability and commercial viability
Background
Costa Rica’s Ecotourism Landscape
Costa Rica is home to over 500,000 species, representing 5% of the world’s biodiversity. With 25% of its land designated as national parks and reserves, it has become a global hotspot for ecotourism. However, tourist activities such as feeding, touching, and photographing wildlife often lead to behavioural changes in animals, dependency on human food, and ecological stress.
The Hidden Problem of Photography
Tourists rely on photography to capture their journeys, but this habit often results in:
Problem Definition
Why Do Tourists Want to Take Photos in Costa Rica?
Studies show that excessive focus on photography weakens memory formation. In Costa Rica’s outdoor adventures, guides often rely on animal sounds to identify species and educate tourists—proving that sound is not just part of the environment but a key to understanding and remembering the experience.
WildEcho enhances auditory perception, shifting tourists’ attention to nature’s sounds. By replacing visual documentation with sound memories, visitors can fully immerse themselves in the journey while minimising wildlife disturbance.
How Can We Reduce Tourists’ Dependence on Photography?
Many tourists visit Costa Rica hoping to capture unique wildlife photographs as a way to preserve their travel memories. However, social media amplifies the idea of “ideal” travel imagery, pushing tourists to engage in irresponsible behaviours—such as getting too close to animals, using flash photography, or feeding wildlife—in pursuit of the perfect shot. Ironically, people themselves are not the winners of this behaviour.
When they fixate on their phone screens, they often miss out on the real essence of the experience.
UX Design Challenges and Strategy
1. Habit Challenge:
How to Change Social Media-Driven Photography Habits?
Challenge:
Photography is a default behaviour in the social media era, serving both memory and sharing purposes. How can we offer alternatives that maintain social engagement without over-reliance on photos?
Design Strategy:
Provide shareable alternatives, such as co-created sound travel maps to share personalised audio experiences, making auditory memories socially engaging.
2. Experience Design:
How to Make Auditory Experiences Compelling?
Challenge:
Auditory experiences are less commonly used in tourism. How can we design sound-based interactions that are as engaging and emotionally resonant as visual ones?
Design Strategy:
Create immersive moments by pairing enhanced directional audio with sensory tools like binoculars, turning listening into a form of discovery and enabling richer, more surprising travel interactions.
3. Behavioural Change:
How to Validate the Effectiveness of Sound Experiences?
Challenge:
How can we assess the influence of auditory experiences on user attention, memory, and behavioural patterns? tourist behaviour?
Design Strategy:
Use controlled experiments to track photography frequency, analyse shifts in attention, and refine the experience journey.
Solutions
Part 1. Challenging Social Media Culture: Making Sound a New Form of Social Currency
Sound Map
Tourists can unlock and share location-based audio linked to Costa Rica’s wildlife.
Interactive Audio Content
Convert recorded travel sounds into personalised soundscapes for white noise or travel video background audio, enhancing shareability.
“Responsible Wildlife Traveller” Badge
Encourage tourists to promote responsible travel practices through
social media.
Part 2. Driving Behavioural Change Through Experience Design
Using the Theory of Change (ToC) framework, we designed an experience that makes responsible tourism not only feasible but also appealing.
Enhanced Auditory Perception
Utilise directional sound technology to allow tourists to hear wildlife from a safe distance, reducing the need for close-up photography.
Interactive Easter Eggs
Introduce rare or extinct animal sounds to enrich the experience and evoke a sense of conservation awareness.
Stakeholder Collaboration
Implement a guide recommendation system to encourage tour guides to share audio content, while visitor recordings contribute to wildlife conservation databases.
SERVICE BLUEPRINT
STAKEHOLDER MAP & VALUE EXCHANGE
WITH STAKEHOLDERS
Iterative Testing & Validation
To evaluate whether WildEcho effectively reduces photo-taking, enhances sensory immersion, and improves memory recall, we used a two-dimensional coordinate system to map and prioritize our hypotheses, and then conducted three rounds of user testing across different interaction scenarios and device combinations. We examined user perception, behavioural responses, and feedback to refine the experience.
Exploring the Impact of Sound-Based Experiences
Objective
To test whether sound enhances nature-based experiences and influences tourist behaviour.
Method
4 participants were divided into a photography group and a sound-focused group in a natural setting. Behavioural observations and emotional feedback were collected.
Key Findings
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Auditory experiences led to deeper immersion and richer perception of nature.
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Sound-based memories proved more lasting and emotionally positive.
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The photography group had the least satisfying experience, often frustrated by imperfect shots.
Iteration
Business Model
Future Prospects
Database
Establish a sound database of
wildlife and nature
Souviner
Devices can be designed
as souvenirs with local characteristics
Memory
Provide a new way of
experience-self and memory-self
Influence
Attract tourists while raising their awareness of respect for nature and wildlife
Brand Extension & Future Collaboration
Exploring Commercial Possibilities with OPPO
To further explore WildEcho’s potential beyond Costa Rica tourism scenarios, we collaborated with OPPO to imagine a product extension that integrates our product concept — combining binocular functions and bone conduction audio technology — into a smart wearable device.
This device acts as both a sound-enhanced observation tool and a memory-capturing companion, allowing users to experience and record nature through immersive, non-intrusive audio interactions.
*Product Concept
*Product Animation
This concept shows how WildEcho can evolve from a service experience to a commercial product ecosystem, enabling collaborations with brands like OPPO, Sony or DJI. It bridges UX and industrial design, while reinforcing our belief that responsible travel can inspire new ways of seeing, hearing and remembering.