Very good tour experience
The Biosphere was very fun and the information the video tour guide provided was very informative about what the Biosphere was about. The self-guided tour may not be for everyone but I personally enjoyed it!
Data cache 224/226
I’ve installed this app 3x. Each time it tries to load cache and stalls out at 224/226. It doesn’t open. Doesn’t work at all.
Don’t try to download over the cellular network
Several members of my family had problems with videos freezing. It seems that video files we had downloaded using cellular had been corrupted. We were able to fix the problem by reinstalling the app using WiFi at the facility.
Suggestion to developers: please consider validating the integrity of your media files as they are downloaded.
Suggestion to developers: please consider validating the integrity of your media files as they are downloaded.
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Does not work reliably
4 people in our group, all downloaded the app prior to our visit. Only one person had the app work though each tour stop. Everyone else had it fail almost immediately. That left them to wander the tour route with no interpretation. Biosphere2 should stick to paper visitor guides until they fix this app.
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Unfortunate Experience
We visited the Biosphere and unfortunately the app was completely unreliable. It worked sometimes and didn’t work other times. This was true for all 3 of us attempting to use it! The videos and audio sometime played and sometimes didn’t. This was regardless of using Wi-Fi or not. This made the entire Biosphere tour/experience unpleasant and frustrating. My advice is to not go. This very poor University of Arizona experience is simply likely to create more frustration than learning.
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Could use some UX improvements
For whatever reason, the app gets unloaded by the OS very quickly after losing focus, for example, when briefly switching to the Camera app to snap a photo. This wouldn't be a problem if the app saved your place in the tour, but the best it offers you with the location services it requests is a map of all the checkpoints with your current location marked, which takes three taps to reach from the home screen. This is a tedious & repetitive process that detracts from the intended tour experience.
This problem is at least countered by some smart design choices, like being able to easily preload all the video content in advance, which barely took a minute over the lobby WiFi.
This problem is at least countered by some smart design choices, like being able to easily preload all the video content in advance, which barely took a minute over the lobby WiFi.
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Videos did not play all the way through
This app is a great concept. However, even though I fully downloaded the tour, and my iPhone has plenty of excess memory, all of the videos would freeze after 30-60 seconds.
If this bug could be worked out, it would be a 5-star app!
If this bug could be worked out, it would be a 5-star app!
Audio stops part way into presentation
Terrible experience
Fantastic insight on an emerging science!
I’m the burgeoning fields of astrophysics and biology outside our planet, projects like Biosphere2 are extremely inspiring to learn about. Thank you devs for making a fun and interactive way to explore what goes into projects such as this!
