I walked Helsinki's parks for two months and made a little app that turns them into collectible pixel-art cards — which parks did I miss?
Hei! I'm an immigrant living in Helsinki, and since moving here the thing that's kept me sane is walking. Last spring I started building a small iOS app around that habit, and it went live on the App Store a couple of weeks ago — so I figured I'd share it with the subreddit of the city it's about.
The idea: as you walk around Helsinki, the app notices when you're near one of 101 parks and lets you "collect" it — you get a pixel-art card with a short poem about that park, written in English, Finnish and Chinese. Over time you fill a personal dex of the city's green spaces, from Esplanadi down to tiny neighborhood pocket parks you'd only know if you lived next to them.
Some things it deliberately doesn't do: no ads, no account, no streaks, no feed. The privacy label is literally "Data Not Collected" — location is checked on-device and never leaves your phone. It's free and I have nothing to sell you; I just wanted more excuses to go outside, and maybe you do too.
Two things I'd genuinely love help with from locals:
- Which parks did I miss? I curated the 101 by walking, Googling and staring at maps, but I'm sure there are beloved local spots that aren't on my list. Tell me your favorite underrated park and I'll add it in an update.
- If you're a native Finnish speaker: each card h'd love a sanity check on whether they read naturally or like a foreigner wrote them with too ew in the comments.
iOS only for now, sorry Android folks — it's a one-person project built on Apple's stack.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6779690988
Kiitos, and see you in the parks 🌳