OuterSpatial is the best place to find your next outdoor adventure — whether it’s taking your kids to a new park, exploring outdoor art in your city, or heading out on a multi-day backpacking trip. OuterSpatial’s different than other apps because we partner directly with the organizations that manage and protect your favorite outdoor places. This means the library of outdoor recreation information in OuterSpatial is curated and updated directly by the organizations that know best.
Other apps rely heavily on crowdsourced information that is often incorrect and/or outdated, and they leave organizations completely out of the feedback loop. This results in an experience that is bad for both recreationists and organizations.
At OuterSpatial, we believe there can and should be a mutually beneficial relationship between those who love to get outside and the organizations that steward our parks, trails, and other outdoor places.
We’ve worked for years to make this vision a reality, and we’ve collected a lot of feedback along the way. We’ve used this information to help us understand what both visitors and organizations genuinely need. To address these needs, we decided to redesign the OuterSpatial Mobile home screen and introduce some exciting new features.
Home Screen
We rebuilt the home screen from scratch to help you find what you’re looking for as quickly as possible.
Community Switcher
You can now switch communities by tapping the Community Switcher at the top of the home page. Communities are curated bundles of outdoor recreation information specific to a geographic area or groups of organizations that share overlapping interests or traits. Explore communities to discover your next outdoor adventure and connect directly with organization employees and other like-minded recreationists.
Search Shortcut
Do you find yourself opening OuterSpatial with a particular area or trail in mind? Well, now we’re giving you a quick way to access the search tool without having to manually navigate from the home screen. Simply tap the “Search” icon in the top, right-hand corner to jump to search in the Explore tab.
Tabs
We’re making it easier for you to understand what OuterSpatial is all about! With the previous version of the home screen, we received feedback that it wasn’t clear what you could DO in OuterSpatial Mobile. So we’ve reorganized it to provide clear labels for sections to make it easier to understand the vision of OuterSpatial and quickly get to the information you’re looking for.
The “Bulletin Board” tab contains the latest and most important information as highlighted by organizations. Scroll through the Bulletin Board to view updates and learn more about what’s going on in your community.
You can find Events and Articles under the “Experiences” tab.
Under the “Organizations” tab, you can find a list of the organizations that are part of your community. Tapping on an organization takes you to the organization screen, where you can view all of an organization’s information and connect directly with the organization via the contact and social media tools.
We’re also excited to announce a new feature you’ll find under the “Challenges” tab. Soon we’ll give organizations the ability to create challenges and share them with you. Completing a particular challenge might entail checking-in to a series of trailheads, responding to a questionnaire while camping in the backcountry, circumnavigating sections of a long-distance trail, or posting photos from a series of stops on an outing. Stay tuned, as we plan on rolling this new feature out in the coming months.
Quick Filters
In this version of OuterSpatial Mobile, we’re giving you a way to filter the map according to what you’re interested in. Want to find a dog-friendly park or a trail you can take a stroller on… or just be assured the park you’re heading to is open? Now you can use the quick filters in the Explore tab to find locations that match your needs more quickly.
We’re also giving you access to these filters from the home screen so you can discover your next adventure even more quickly.
Here are some of the filters you’ll be able to use in this first version of quick filters:
- Location Type (Area, Trail, Outing, and Point of Interest)
- Open/Closed
- Dog-Friendly
- Accessibility (Wheelchair-Friendly and Visually Impaired)
- Activities (Hiking, Biking, Horseback Riding, Off-roading, Hunting, and Fishing)
- Seasons (Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall)
- Family-Friendly
Want to see more filters? We’re working on expanding what you can filter by, so reach out at visitors@outerspatial.com and let us know what else you’d like to see!
Conclusion
You can access all these changes by making sure you’re on the latest version of the OuterSpatial app for both Android and iOS.
Remember, OuterSpatial is completely free to download and use with no “locked” features thanks to our partner organizations. Please let these organizations know you appreciate their commitment to providing a high-quality, accessible mobile experience by leaving a 5-star review and/or contacting them directly through the app.
We’re looking forward to hearing what you think about the new features, so if you’d like to submit feedback please email us at visitors@outerspatial.com. Happy adventuring!
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