Exercise, fresh air and a touch of adventure - bike tours are a great way to explore nature while staying active. With Actionbound, you can add a new dimension to these activities by creating interactive and fun tours. In this blog post, you will find out how to create cycle tours with Actionbound and which important aspects you should consider.

Step 1: Develop the main idea

Before you start with the technical implementation, think about what should make your cycle tour special. Would you like to introduce historical sights, challenge the participants to a puzzle or perhaps stage an entertaining scavenger hunt? The main idea determines the character of your tour and makes it unique. It is also important to consider who the tour is intended for. Is there a specific target group? Here is a small example of a basic idea: Get to know the nature in your neighbourhood. Plant tour by bike!

Step 2: Route planning

Careful route planning is crucial. Make sure that the cycle tour is safe and enjoyable and mark the individual stops at prominent points. Also consider how much time the participants will need for each stop and whether there are enough opportunities to rest in between. Be sure to cycle the tour once beforehand and take a watch with you. Are the cycle paths safe, where is a good place to take a break and which things are easy to spot from the bike? To stay with the plant tour: Is there perhaps a particular tree that plays an important role in your tour? Or does a little fictitious raven guide you from station to station?

Step 3: Create Bound and add interactive elements

Actionbound is a user-friendly platform that allows you to create interactive tours. Register on the website en.actionbound.com and start creating a new tour. For each stop, you can add questions, tasks or quizzes to encourage interaction. But be careful: If you are creating a tour for your family and friends, you don't need to do anything else, but if you want to develop a tour for teaching purposes or as a tourist offer, you will need a corresponding licence. Simply contact our sales team. Just send an email to sales@actionbound.de. Make your cycle tour interactive with Actionbound. Add photos, videos or audio recordings to tell the story of the stations. Games, puzzles and quizzes add fun and variety to the tour. Don't forget to also include rewards or points for certain actions to awaken the ambition of the participants. Let's stick to the nature route again: how about our raven from the Bound getting to know different animals, trees and bushes at each station, for example. He makes new friends at each station. For instance, an earthworm that lives under a deciduous tree or a blackbird that likes to peck the sunflower seeds. If questions are answered correctly, the raven collects friends and food.

Step 4: Consider technical aspects

Make sure that the participants have access to the internet during the tour so that they can use the Actionbound app, or ask them to download the Bound once beforehand. This way, the Bound can also be played offline. Test the tour in advance to make sure that everything works smoothly. Inform the participants about technical requirements before the start and give clear instructions on how to use the app. And important: Please do not hold the smartphone in your hand while cycling. This could be dangerous. Explain the routes clearly beforehand and possibly put up signs to show the way.

Step 5: Do not neglect safety

The safety of the players comes first. Point out that they should follow the traffic rules and be aware that the environment may not be barrier-free. Encourage them to wear protective equipment such as helmets, especially if the tour takes them along busy roads.

With Actionbound, bike tours can become exciting adventures. The combination of movement and interactive elements creates a unique experience for participants of all ages. Careful planning, creative ideas and consideration of important aspects will turn your Actionbound bike tour into an unforgettable experience for everyone involved. Use the diversity of the platform to explore nature in a new, fun way and keep moving.

Are you planning an Actionbound bike tour this year? If so, please feel free to link us on our social media channels. We are always happy to receive links!

Time and again, we at Actionbound are confronted with a question from our users. "Is Actionbound actually barrier-free?". Here is the blog post that answers the question and offers tips and tricks on how to reduce barriers. So we are not completely barrier-free, but our software still offers starting points on how to easily reduce barriers and design content that is suitable for the target group.

Let's take a closer look at this:

Actionbound can be used to create individual routes, rallies and games. The content is filled in by the creators in our Bound Creator. The players then play the Bound on their mobile devices. Depending on the target group, it is important to prepare the content in such a way that it is understandable and, of course, fun.

Actionbound is for EVERYONE! Inclusion is an important part of our society that aims to provide equal opportunities for participation and development. This also applies in the field of digital learning.

Here are some specific application tips:

READING

The contents of the Bounds can be read aloud by the players. At the beginning of the Bound, a person can be selected to read the contents to the group. Or there can be a game master responsible for reading.

A good option for solo players would be to read the text out loud and, for example, create practice videos with creative tasks. This way, you can review the reading success in the results afterward.

Unfortunately, there is no built-in read-aloud function in the app. However, the texts can be recorded by the creators of the Bound during the development phase and integrated into the individual elements as audio files. This allows players to listen to the texts while reading them. If necessary, the texts could also be narrated by professional speakers. This way, the Bound becomes an immersive auditory experience.

In general, when it comes to texts, it is advisable to pay attention to the following:

• Simple language
• Short sentences
• Paragraph breaks after each sentence
• Not too many sentences in one element
• Highlight words and sentences using Markdown formatting

With our extra feature, the Bound Styler, you have the option to customize fonts and background colors. If you are interested in this topic, get more information from our sales team.

LISTENING

Engage your players' senses and allow them to perceive your content auditorily. Give their eyes a little break and use the option to upload audio files. Don't just record texts, as mentioned above; use sounds or music as well.

Enhance your audio recordings with sound effects and music. Use the option to insert sounds in quiz tasks. For example, you can ask what sound is being heard or have players respond with sounds. You can find many licence-free sounds on the internet for free download. Alternatively, you can easily record sounds and voice messages with your smartphone and upload them to your media library. Give this option a try!

Making it even easier with audio files: Have you heard of our native audio player? We've written an entire blog article about this feature. With this setting, you can, for example, adjust the playback speed. Additionally, you have the option to continue playing the files while in standby mode. No more interruptions. If you're interested in this topic, click here.

PRESENTING & CREATING

Use pictures, illustrations, videos, audio files etc. when designing your Bound. Be creative in the design and avoid walls of text. Present your content to your target group. Or almost (even) better: Let your target group generate the content! Use the Task element and let your players get creative. How do they see the city? What is their favourite place? With photo and video tasks, you can address your players directly and involve them in what you want to convey. When the Bound is finished and the files are uploaded, you as the creator can find the files in your settings. Create a collage from the pictures and let the experience resonate.

TRY OUR INCLUSION-BOUND

Want to see what a Bound could look like? Then take a look at our example Bound. Here, the character Sidney Simple guides you through the Bound and explains the individual elements with a focus on inclusion. Download the Actionbound app for free and scan the starting code at the bottom of the page.

Have fun trying out and developing your Bound idea. We always appreciate your feedback. Do you have an exciting Bound project? Feel free to reach out to us! :)

Our IT has conjured up something new again: You can now have your Bound sections played randomly.

You can easily select this in your Bound settings. You can find them in your dashboard on the left side at the third position (wrench) directly above the button with your results of your Bound. Just click on it and then you can set the Stages order to Random on the right side.

Don't forget to update your Bound version after the change. You can do this in your Bound profile under "Publish".

If you want all your players to have an intro and outro, you can also set this. This is useful if you want to explain the rules of the game or welcome your players in the intro. The same is true for the outro. Here you can say goodbye to your players, say a few final words and for example refer to further bounds of yours. How to handle the intro and the outro separately you can find here: Just set a checkmark at Intro and/or Outro and the first and the last Stage will be played in any case.

The Stages in between can be played randomly in game mode. Your players won't know what will happen next. Surprise guaranteed.

The random sequence of Stages is useful for smaller quiz sections, for example, or if movement tasks have to be solved per section. In a group it is especially fun to work with the random Stages order, because you can be surprised together which tasks have to be solved.

Try the following: Additionally limit the playing time and set the task of completing as many sections as possible in 15 minutes. Let's see who can do the most!

Small tip: If you create a rally with GPS coordinates, you should make sure that the paths work for all Stages combinations.

Small disclaimer: If your Bound is downloaded and saved, then the order will not change the second time you play. If you want to reshuffle your Stages, it's best to download your Bound again. Then the Stages will be reshuffled.

Have fun trying it out!

Actionbound was created as tool to digitise the classic scavenger hunt and make it more intuitive. The fact that you can do this easily with our software is probably well known, but it's not the only thing you can put together with our software. Have you ever tried to develop Bounds that can be played from anywhere? No matter if sofa or forest, city or country. Here we provide you with a few simple tips and tricks on how you can create a location-independent Bound.

The classic Escape Game

Yes, it's true. Actionbound can also be used to create Escape Games. You don't need GPS coordinates for this. Important: Make notes at the beginning. What is it all about and what should happen in the individual sections? Where should the players "puzzle" their way out of? Does the Bound only work for one person, or does it need a team? Our Stages help you to structure your location-independent Bound. In each Stage, the players could, for example, puzzle their way through rooms or question fictitious people. For example, one puzzle could be solved per Stage. Just try it out. It always makes sense to start with simple puzzles and then increase the difficulty as the game progresses. Another tip for Actionbound pros: If you build Switches into your Escape Game, you can develop different paths. In any case, you should test, test, test beforehand.

A quiz to test one's knowledge

The quiz format is often used in education. You can create simple quizzes with Actionbound. The format is very suitable, for example, to check homework or to introduce a new topic. Tip: Too simple quiz questions will quickly bore your players and make the game experience monotonous. Try to pimp your Bound with creative questions and use photos and audio recordings to convey your content. Your quiz Bound should last no longer than 20 minutes in total to keep the game fun.

One Bound - different locations

Would you like to use Actionbound to bring places to life for players, even if they can't visit and discover them on site? Simply create a Bound that can be played from anywhere. Stages will help you structuring your Bound. Create a fictional character, for example a guide, who accompanies the players from place to place. Level up your Bound by adding different media like audio recordings. Use quiz questions to test your players' knowledge. Actionbound tip: Let your fictional character interact with your players. Questions like "Where are you right now?", "What does your environment look like?", "What places do you like to visit?" make your Bound more lively and you will get many different reactions, no matter where the Bound is played. Just give it a try.

Have you ever created a location-independent Bound? Can you still play it? We are always happy to receive links on our social networks.

We just released a new feature which allows you to combine two or more Bounds into one new Bound.

The feature merge Bounds allowes you to copy the content of your existing Bounds into a new one.

The following video shows you how simple it is to merge two Bounds.

Let teams compete against each other with the Bound Challenge!

The Bound Challenge allows several teams or single players to play a Bound against each other. The Bound Challenge is ideally suited for Bounds which should be played by several small groups, e. g. in the library, at the zoo or in the museum. For this, neither the creator nor the participants have to be registered at Actionbound and can nevertheless benefit from a combined evaluation of the results.

Any number of players or teams are grouped together using the individual start code of the Bound Challenge. If a new Bound Challenge is created, a start guide PDF with QR code is automatically created for downloading and printing. The Bound Challenge creator also receives a link to access the results of his group and to easily compare them.

The Bound Challenge is available if the Bound owner has a valid Actionbound license and the Bound is online.

Results and comparison view of the Bound Challenge

The Bound Styler gives you the opportunity to customize the appearance of your Bounds according to your own ideas and wishes.

Customization possibilities

Logo: You can add your own logo on the home screen.
Colors: You can customize the colors of the individual elements of the Bound interface. In addition, you can set whether the buttons should be displayed square or rounded.
Background: How about a nice picture as a background for your Bound?
Font: Here you can choose from 14 fonts and adjust the size.
Import: In addition, you can use the Import function to import a style from one of your other Bounds.

Here are a few examples of how Bounds can be customized with the Bound Styler.

You can find out how to use the Bound Styler in the video above or in the Actionbound Helpdesk.