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🇦🇽 ÅlandApp — Info

Background and Vision

Åland has a vibrant culture, sports scene, and services, but finding information about them is often difficult. The fragmentation of information is a challenge not only for businesses but also for hobby groups, clubs, and individuals. Many small operators lack proper websites or have none at all, and information is scattered across Facebook or Instagram.

There are various aggregator sites available, such as aland.com (maintained by Vibb Ab), but these are often static directories and are not suited for the real-time needs of smaller operators. Information about current availability (e.g., booking status) does not update in real-time, and options for direct contact are limited.

In the future, it is possible to easily add new domains to the application as needed. Future expansions could include public transport route maps and planning, locations of recycling points, and various everyday services such as dentists, health centers, massage therapists, and physiotherapists.

The Solution

ÅlandApp offers an interactive, real-time marketplace and showcase for businesses and operators. The service allows companies to reach their audience without committing to maintaining their own websites or heavy e-commerce platforms. The demo includes the ability to purchase selected services or book appointments directly with a single click. The application also provides seamless communication capabilities between the user and the provider.

Features

Trails (Hiking Maps): The demo features a hiking map application that fetches data from the service maintained by Ålands landskapsregering (experience.arcgis.com) into a mobile-friendly format. It offers a selection of the best open-source basemap options. The trail routes are intentionally rendered slightly wider and semi-transparent so users can read the underlying map paths and compare them.
Lunch: Fetches the weekly lunch list (currently from aland.com, with the future possibility of fetching directly from restaurants' own websites). It enables smooth browsing of menus and comparison of locations on the map.
Location Tracking (GPS): Maps on all tabs support location tracking, making it easy for users to follow their own location on the island.
Profile and Community: Users can join and leave groups (mailing lists) to receive timely notifications directly from operators. For future development, the page introduces community services such as "Låna saker" (borrowing items), "Köp och sälj" (buy and sell, independent of the Facebook group of the same name), and "Samåkning" (carpooling). These ideas increase a sense of community and gather decentralized local information into one place.

Sources of Inspiration

When designing the application's user interface and logic, inspiration and lessons were drawn from services such as:

These services typically focus on a relatively narrow sector. Given Åland's compact market area, a single comprehensive aggregator application is likely the most functional and user-friendly solution.

Future Development

Some of the demo's features are already quite production-ready: business information on the map with links, the map application itself with hiking trails, and the lunch list search are in very good shape. The minimalist and deliberate style of the application works well, but to represent local businesses and the community in the best possible way, it requires further refinement.

Functional Backend System:

User Authentication: Separate profiles for customers and providers (e.g., secure login provided by Google).
Interactivity & Booking: Building a small-scale e-commerce and booking logic requires deeper software development to ensure security and financial transactions work seamlessly.

Proposed Schedule

Summer 2026: Light planning and testing phase for the more complete parts of the application (such as maps and lunch lists).
Autumn 2026 (starting Sept): Establishing a test group. About 15 local businesses and operators will be selected. The remaining parts of the application will be designed in cooperation with them.
Nov–Dec 2026: A 3-month intensive testing period with the test group.
Spring 2027: Public launch of the application for a wider audience (end users).

Open README.md file ↗

Lunch — DEMO

Real data fetched from aland.com. Ready for testing.

Explore — DEMO

Real instances with mock data. Links to existing webpages are implemented. Coordinates on the map need fixing.

Trails — DEMO

Real routes and route information fetched from experience.arcgis.com.

Background maps (maastokartta, taustakartta) are provided by the National Land Survey of Finland (Maanmittauslaitos) under CC BY 4.0. The satellite imagery (ortokuva) is provided by Google Maps.