Live Wait Interface

Check-In
Wait Time

Inspiration

The issue we want to tackle is letting people know what kind of wait is awaiting them (hah) at the post office. Waiting in line for half an hour is already a terrible experience, but it’s made even worse when you don’t expect it. The idea we have is inspired from Yelp’s live wait time system. Built as an extension of the existing USPS mobile app or to their website, we want users to be able to find the estimated live wait time for the post office they’re going to. Read below in “What it does” to figure out how we plan on creating an estimated wait time, and how this might eliminate physically standing in line at the post office.

What it does

Customers check in to a kiosk/ipad at the post office as they get in line, and based on the “activity” that the customer checks in with, we decide an ETA for that transaction. We then add up all the transactions and display an estimated wait time for those that check in online or through the app. Because customers check in as they get in line, this could eliminate the need of a physical line. If the wait time allows for it, customers can stop by next door for food, coffee, talk a walk, or whatever else. They will receive a text/email notification letting them know that they will be the next person to be assisted when they’re back (within x minutes, and if they haven’t arrived then they are taken off the list). All other users not physically at the post office can see the estimated wait time through the app or website.

How we built it

We split responsibilities, and we used Github as a common platform to share and fix our code. In terms of languages, we used Java to code our program and HTML for what the wait-time interface might look like. We used hash tables to manage lines in different locations and determine the overall current wait time. We also used ArrayLists to model people standing in line. There is a text file which has locations of various USPS offices and we have a program that allows users to search for a post office location; from there, they can see the wait time for the location with the location hash table.

Challenges we ran into

We used various data structures such as linked lists and hash table, and we found calling one hash table with another one very confusing and we had to learn along the way. Problems with debugging our code arose, but eventually, we were able to fix. A lot of our components work individually, but we couldn't mesh them together (ex: our demo of wait-time can't update to the website we would've used).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the fact that we were able to come up with a unique project proposal and complete a project. This is the first hackathon for the majority of our group! And we're proud that we're still friends :)

What we learned

We learned a lot more about storing and retrieving data (like hash tables), that it is okay to be wrong, and the importance of planning and how much time it could save. We collaborated with each other on various parts of the code that we were having trouble with, whether it was debugging or concepts.