Mariebergsskogen – an app that helps visitors discover more

Mariebergsskogen is the city park of Karlstad, the main city of the province of Värmland in west-central Sweden, with a zoo, a nature centre, concerts and lots of great experiences. With the app, visitors can take guided tours, find their way around the park and get more out of their visit!

Challenge

Mariebergsskogen is one of the most visited places in the province, offering lovely surroundings and fun activities for all ages. You can visit the Lillskogen zoo, Naturum Värmland (a visitor centre for the region's nature), the play garden and the open-air museum – or take a ride on the tour train, swim at the beach in summer and skate on the ice rink in winter. On top of that, the events calendar is packed all year round.

Many people in Karlstad visit the park often, and some have walked the same route every day for decades. But not everyone knows how much there actually is to do and experience. Mariebergsskogen therefore wanted more people to discover more of everything the park has to offer. They wanted to complement signs and the website with an app that could guide visitors and quickly give them an overview of everything in the park.

Mariebergsskogen has a fascinating history, with stories around every corner. To get more people to discover all the different parts of the park, its historic buildings and its rich animal life, they also wanted to create guided tours and engaging quiz trails.

It was very important to Mariebergsskogen that the app could be adapted to their visual identity and match their strong brand. Good support and room for further development were also important.

Solution

A native app is an excellent fit for Mariebergsskogen. Together we designed the app in line with their visual identity.

In the app, which is free to download and use, visitors find events, opening hours, a map and several guided tours to take on their own. You can learn more about the animals in Lillskogen, discover the historic buildings or challenge friends and family to a quiz!

As the map is central to the visitor experience, Mariebergsskogen produced a beautifully illustrated map of the whole park. On the map, visitors can see their own position, and places to eat, the ice-cream kiosk, the different animals, toilets and other services are marked with info pins that give more information, such as opening hours.

Since the app is a broad visitor app with many kinds of information, we created three headings on the home screen: Hello and Welcome has information about events and other useful things to know before your visit, Guided tours has several different guides, and under Quizzes you'll of course find quizzes.

The menu at the bottom of the screen gives quick access to the overview map and an about page with information about the park, the app and contact details.

The first version of the app was launched ahead of the peak season in spring 2023. Mariebergsskogen plans to add both more features and more content, such as guided tours and quizzes.