Having no destination I am never lost.
Ikkyu, 1394-1481
One nice thing of many games it the auto-mapping function. Esp. when they indicate whether you have seen everything (here from Resident Evil games):
There is also the «fog of war» in strategy and simulation games, in which unexplored areas are obscured and the «fog» is lifted dynamically when exploring it (adding an element of uncertainty).
I wonder whether something similar might be useful for map apps, e.g., Organic Maps (or Maps.me). I think they already offer to track your movements for a day, but having an option to display where you have been … that might be really helpful when you explore cities (only a mockup):
Again, only a sketch, but slightly obscuring the map and showing clearly where you were might really help with exploration.
Same with museums. Might even track how long you spend in front of each artwork and suggest a more in-depth interaction with some. Even achievements/badges might be useful when they convey that you have, e.g., explored everything in a museum wing or the whole city center, or visited all shrines, or the like.
Something to think about …
Update: Peter pointed me to «Fog of World» (https://fogofworld.app/en/), which apparently uses a similar concept (thank you 🙂 ). I haven’t tried it out — and find the price a bit steep — but it might be something.