Founder & developer
Park Guide.
My next independent venture, built to help parks departments fulfill their mission of stewardship and service.
In development
A familiar problem, a broader view
Planning a park visit can mean moving between maps, trail apps, reservation systems, and department websites to answer simple questions. What can I do there? What facilities are available? What should I know before arriving?
Park Guide is being developed to make that information easier to find and trust. It builds on my experience with Explore Michigan, while looking more broadly at the relationship between visitors and parks departments.
Two sides of the same experience
For visitors, the goal is clear, practical information about parks, recreation destinations, amenities, activities, and the details that make a visit easier to plan.
For parks departments, the goal is a parks management software suite that supports their work of stewardship and service. The initial feature set focuses on capturing information about their locations and communicating it to visitors.
I’m the founder and developer, responsible for the product direction, design, and engineering.
What I’m working on now
Park Guide is in development. My current work centers on the architecture and initial tools for capturing and maintaining information about parks, amenities, activities, and other recreation destinations, and sharing that information with visitors.
The public website introduces the direction of the product and offers a signup for launch updates. It is the place to follow progress and hear about future availability.
Native AI integration
I’m designing Park Guide to work with the AI products parks departments use, such as Microsoft Copilot. The goal is native integration, so staff can work with Park Guide through their existing AI tools.
For visitors, I want park information to be available through products such as ChatGPT, making it easier to find useful details while planning a visit.
These integrations are planned as part of the product’s development.
Principles guiding the design
Trustworthy information. Useful recreation software starts with details people can depend on. The architecture needs to support clear, maintainable location information.
Calm, practical design. The interface should help someone understand a place and decide what to do next. Thoughtful typography, accessibility, and clear organization are part of that work.
A maintainable foundation. I’m approaching the product as a long-term independent business. I care about choices that let me keep improving the software and the information it communicates.
Where I want it to go
The longer-term vision is a parks management software suite that supports departments across their work and connects visitors with trustworthy information. The initial location and communication tools are a starting point for that broader product.
Planned capabilities include details about trails, alerts, passes, and other practical visit information. Scope and availability will become clearer as development progresses.
Learn more and subscribe for launch updates at park-guide.com