bloop - Right Here, Right Now

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  Iron Maidens

Inspiration

The Iron Maidens are five fierce, female international students. We empathise with those who come to Melbourne with no support network and have to start from scratch. Because of Covid-19, we believed the feeling of isolation, disconnection and loneliness have highly increased among a lot of people. We set out on a mission to solve this, and after many trials and errors (including a mood tracker) we decide to make bloop , an app that is hyperlocal and offers spontaneous meetups to users.

'bloop' is the term for mysterious sounds heard in the deep blue seas that many believe come from large aquatic creatures looking for their fellow mates. We decided then, whether this is true or not, bloop is the perfect name that reflects the platform - fun, easygoing and promoting connectivity!

What it does

bloop gives easy and free access to meet people in your area spontaneously i.e. in the next couple of hours. You can create and participate in 'bloops' (activities created by users) and browse them by location and your personal preferences. Bloops are only for 24 hours and have a start time. bloop is offering a platform for people who want to engage in activities and meet new people 'right here, right now'.

How we built it

Before bloop there was an unnamed app idea which lasted a day. Once we realised that it isn't feasible, we started writing ideas on paper. We wrote down our assumptions and found ways to ask questions that can help us gather data to validate these assumptions. Throughout market research, it changed forms, as we omitted or added features to suit the needs of our customer base.

Once we had a fair idea of what we could offer in a market full connectivity apps, our team turned a new page, literally and started sketching the prototype. The prototype was then built on Figma by Mili, Shelby, and Elisa while Nav and Cath conducted further market research. Elisa is also the genius behind the logo. Mili suggested 'bloop' as a fun sound that can mean anything and Google suggested that it actually had some meaning. Nav and Cath also worked on visualising data and creating slides for the final video. Shelby is our amazing video editor who brought the idea to life with her visuals. The voiceover is provided by our wonderful techie Mili.

Challenges we ran into

bloop wasn't always bloop . At a point, it was called MIIT, and at another point, it was nothing but a mood tracker that connected you to someone in a similar mood as yours to talk it out. We dropped that idea quickly when we realised how precious mental health is and without professionals, we shouldn't mess around with mental health connectivity apps. But that led to the idea of bloop , which addresses isolation without delving deep into psychology.

Market research was tough. bloop has a unique user interface that is hard to find in other apps, so we had to carefully choose what information we used and what information we wanted to find to solve our problem. The prototype survey had more men than women which may have shown some favourable results. However, we persisted and plan on filling these loopholes in the future.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our cute logo and mascot, our prototype and our co-ordination. Despite starting out as a bunch of strangers, we were able to divide and conquer this task without hiccups!

We were also able to share our skills with each other. Shelby taught everyone how business models and video editing works. Elisa taught everyone the ins and outs of design. Mili is the visionary who showed us how we can design and build our own prototypes without being tech experts. Cath had immense entrepreneurial wisdom to share and always asked the tough questions. Nav was the researcher and wordsmith who polished our ideas to look and sound good.

What we learned

Diversity is key. It adds more value to work.

Teamwork makes the dreamwork.

Chris Hemsworth is everyone's favourite Australian (or human being actually). He lives in Byron Bay in an 11 million dollar mansion with his wife and kids and pets. We are very good at research ;)

Time management is super duper important.

What's next for Iron Maidens

The Iron Maidens connected over a shared problem, the determination to make the world better and Chris Hemsworth. We plan on staying in touch and spend more time polishing bloop , even after the hackathon and see where we can take it.

Built With

• canva
• figma
• looka
• the-noun-project