Making Parks Attractive to New Generations: Montgomery County Scavenger Hunt Website

Abstract

There are neglections on the ample park activity resources within Montgomery County, MD. As a result, park visitors are missing out the opportunities to discover and enjoy various points of interest in parks that would optimize their outdoor experiences. It is therefore, essential to examine what needs to take place for exposing the points of interest in parks to park visitors and encourage them to engage with the activities associated with those points of interest. Inspired by Pokémon GO, a game developed by Niantic uses the mobile device GPS to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures; the Montgomery County Department of Parks worked with a graduate student from iSchool at University of Maryland, College Park in developing a GPS enabled mobile first gaming website for park visitors to locate, engage with points of interest and compete each other by score. The website strives to bring all points of interest together to park visitors with a common purpose: to fulfill their right to experience a physically active life.