Inspiration
Our app was inspired by nostalgic aesthetic, polaroid photos, the old practice of taking your photos to a development company to have them developed, and early social media, which felt authentic and imperfect rather than performative. Modern social media platforms no longer reward authentic connections. Instead, it encourages high engagement and curated content which creates an environment of performativity. This kind of incentive quietly but surely instills a sense of perfectionism in the minds of most. This is a problem because many don't chase popularity, they chase authentic connection. They want to be "real" (haha get it like the app) in an environment where being real isn't rewarded or overlooked.
What it does
Exposr is a social media web app that allows you to:
- Take pictures over the week, any amount. You can't see them immediately, not even previews. You just take a picture and forget about it until the end of the week where you and your friends discover the pictures you took once it's done "developing".
- Keep up with friends and see what they did over the whole week.
- Works very similarly to dispos (disposable cameras) which is the entire idea
How we built it
We built it using modern web stacks, most notably react + Node.js, while using supabase for DB and storage handling.
Challenges we ran into
The ideation process was quite challenging as our vision for the app was blurry at the start. Design conflicts were another challenge that we encountered, in both UI design and system design. Requirements and constraints were unclear, especially when it came down to realistic/doable features both programatically and visually.
What we learned
We learned a lot about using tools like Git, Github, PostgreSQL, Node, Python. We also learned a lot about frontend and backend development and the general ideation process that goes into creating something new. Open communication was key in the end, most importantly when it came to discussing ideas, delegating tasks, and keeping all team members in the loop.
What's next for exposr
- Dark and Light mode
- Album Decoration
- Profile Customization (banners, themes, etc.)
- Mobile base app
- Photo moderating (either done manually or automated by AI)
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