Last weekend, I spent some time wandering around Central Park. It always amazes me how big it is! I’ve been there many times, and haven’t seen all of it. Central Park by Central Park Conservancy ($1.99 in the App Store) has put together a great app that gives you an edge on wandering around, what I would consider to be, the greatest urban park in the world.
The app opens up with the Central Park Conservancy splash screen that ends in a nice transition to the home page. This app has a navigation bar on the bottom, which consists of, from left to right, Home, Map, Sites, Events and More. On the home screen, you’ll find the title of the app and a Did You Know? box containing 13 facts about the park and the conservancy. The text box has a randomly generated picture of the park as a backdrop and a little tab prompting you to support the conservancy.
Once on the Maps page, you’ll find yourself looking at a map of Central Park. The map is laid out in the same fashion as the Maps app, only the Central Park portion of Manhattan is populated with tons of content referencing locations, paths, landforms and more. Pinch to zoom, or drag around to view. This app contains GPS functionality, and will display your current location on the map.
The Sites page contains all of the points on the map in list form for easy browsing. Tap on one of the categories, such as Arches & Bridges, and it will give you an alphabetical list of all the arches and bridges in the park. If the specified site contains a picture, it will have a thumbnail to the right of the name. Tap one of the sites, and you’ll see an excellent picture of the site in question, with a description and brief history. In the upper right-hand corner, there’s a button to locate the site on the map.
On the Events page, you’ll view a calendar of all the activities in the park for a given day. The interface is that of the native iPhone Calendar app. The More button on the nav bar will take you to a list of additional content, such as Support, News, Tweets, About and Settings.
I found this app to be very intuitive and pleasing to use. What a great way to plan a trip to the park! It’s an awesome resource for anyone who spends time in Central Park. Even if you’re simply planning a trip to New York City and plan to go to the park for a few hours, grab this app. It will be well worth it.
