​Love Exploring – an app to bring parks to life

Plymouth City Council recently launched a smartphone app called Love Exploring for their largest green space, Central Park. This sort of visitor intervention to increase human engagement and connection to​ the natural environment is one of the fastest growing, most widely accessible, and cost-effective ways of improving people’s wellbeing.

Love Exploring App Launch

​The app includes practical information such as a map of the park, points of interest, things to do and facilities, as well as more immersive elements involving two augmented reality games. These family-friendly games showcase interactive visions of dinosaurs and planets around the park inviting visitors to explore the expansive greenspace and ​test their knowledge with fun quiz questions. There are also two walking trails, tailored more for adults, with wildlife highlights such as the yellow ragwort flowers that provide a healthy habitat for bees. ​

The subscription to this national app is jointly funded through our Future Parks Accelerator Programme and the Green Minds project. 

Health and wellbeing  ​

There are several potential benefits of this app that are of interest to our Future Parks initiative; one of these is for health and wellbeing. Daily, many of us rush around without taking in our surroundings. City parks fall victim to the hurried visitor; as many of us speed through the space as a means of getting from A to B. The app’s trails and games offer an opportunity to see public parks in a new light, as visitor destinations rather than passive spaces; drawing attention to areas of nature that people would otherwise miss and enabling users to engage with the wildlife surrounding them; like the birds overhead or the many trees originating from different continents. ​

Taking time to be in the present and using your senses to absorb the sights, smells and sounds around you is the basis of mindfulness and a key ingredient to healthy mental wellbeing. Similar uses of technology for mindfulness and meditation in parks have been made by Urban Green Newcastle through their project with Take Ten Minutes, which utilises audio descriptive podcasts to take people on ten-minute long, meditative walks through parks. These technologies have been identified for their green social prescribing potential, and in the case of the Love Exploring app, partner Green Minds have started to use the app at green social prescribing framed events. ​

Commercial opportunities ​

Through the map feature, the app guides visitors to amenities in the park such as the café, toilets, pop-up stalls and stands. In doing this, the app improves the accessibility of the park for a wide range of people and provides an opportunity for park based businesses to advertise for free and attract customers. This, together with the events feature, keeps local communities in the know about what is coming up, acting as a strong communication tool that all stakeholders can use to keep up to date, creating a sense of community.

Audience engagement ​

The app also has the capacity to engage new audiences, advertising events and attracting higher visitor numbers. Since the launch event in July 2021 there have been six different events involving app promotion to a range of different people, demonstrated by the parks teams dressed as dinosaurs and skeletons. Events like the summer Funky Llama Fun Day inviting people with disabilities to take part in park-based activities like park yoga, have demonstrated the app’s versatility in engaging people with different interests and accessibility needs. ​

Most of the feedback suggesting the app is being well-received is word of mouth but a more formal survey asking visitors “did it encourage you to come to central park more” showed all respondents unanimously​ answered “yes”. In addition, app data indicates families are the predominant users with numbers dropping off in school holidays and picking up at weekends. Plymouth parks teams are currently investigating how to expand audiences and who to engage with next – exciting times, watch this space.   ​

Conclusion  ​

What does this technology mean for the parks sector? In a world where technology has occupied every crevice of our lives, it is important that the parks sector keeps relevant and up to date for people, communities and with the times. This app isn’t about staring into our phones whilst standing in a park, rather it encourages us to use technology that enhances our experiences of the greenspaces around us, encouraging all to play, learn and relax within nature. 

By Georgina Harvey, Programme Coordinator, November 2021