Want an efficient route? Use Google Maps. Want a whimsical route? Use Serendipitor.

University at Buffalo professor’s app adds whimsy to mapped routes:

Shepard and a few colleagues have developed a mobile application for the iPhone and iPad that helps its users stumble onto something new or see a familiar place in a different light.

Their Serendipitor app uses Google Maps to provide a route to a requested or random destination, but with a set of whimsical instructions to follow.

Walk behind a dog until it notices you. Find the nearest tree and sit under it for one minute. Locate a dark alley and walk down it, and if you can’t find one just close your eyes.

“The applications that I write are trying to get us to stop doing this,” Shepard said, holding his face close to his phone, “and start looking outward again.”