Sign in to view
member only content

For parents, a great cafe doesn’t necessarily mean one that serves their favorite blend of coffee and lets them sit on their laptop all day. Instead, it could mean having space to fit an oversized stroller or good baby-changing facilities. In the past, finding out if a venue is child-friendly involved a lot of trial and error, but now Winnie is a crowdsourced venue review app specifically for parents, which lets them get answers to questions such as whether they can nurse in peace, and if a restaurant sells a good grilled cheese sandwich.

Winnie already has information on 100,000 locations in the US and more are being added daily. Posts are created by users, who can tag places they visit including playgrounds, shops, cafes and museums, and add information about how kid-friendly it was. The posts are then displayed on a map modeled on Google Maps, and other users can browse or search for venues with the right facilities.

Winnie is available for free from the App Store. We have seen similar platforms created for those who have mobility problems. Are there any other demographics that could be catered for in this way?