Our Inspiration
When wearing a face mask became obligatory in the region we live in (south of Germany) we personally experienced the effects in our community - friends and family were desperately looking for a possibility to find masks, mask shortage was THE trending topic everywhere and still you could buy masks at places you would never expect. Thus we decided to take action.
Problem Statement
Wearing a face mask is required or recommended in more and more European countries leading to an incredibly high demand for face masks. This has three main effects:
- People are visiting various shops to encounter a mask when actually they should stay at home.
- People feel left alone with short and overpriced masks.
- Some places still are in stock but not known to everybody.
Our Solution
We want to implement a crowd-based information platform creatingtransparency around critical protective equipment’s availability. The app and website provide an overview of available masks, locations and prices at your fingertips. The look and feel of the application is similar to „aroundME“ but is focused on masks. There are two main functions.
- Customers can search for masks supliers and sort/filter them by type, distance, price,…Purchasing online is not possible because we want to focus on increasing transparency.
- Mask suppliers can be registered. The information provide includes the type of mask, price, restrictions, available numbers and a photo. The suppliers can be registered by consumers or shops.
We unmask your way to take care for yourself & others!
Our solution is...
- Transparent about what to find where and at which criteria.
- Crowd-based Information to make the most out of our potential as a society.
- Simple usage for everyone– both vendors & customers! (free of charge).
LevelUp: Possible Product Enhancements
After the main functions have been implemented further product enhancements are possible:
- Extension to other crisis-related products
- Connection to offline media (e.g. local newspapers, print option for elderly people)
- Share further information around masks (e.g. different types, tailor instructions, approved important news)
- Delivery preview for customers by vendors
- Extra payments for equipment reservation (i.e. premium offer; but: no online purchase to avoid mass purchases)
- Incentives/rewards for stock registrations & updates
- Use as major platform to gather crisis data
Our Solution’s Impact
Our Solution’s Value Post-Crisis
Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over the application will not be used anymore because the focus is to provide essential protective equipment during a crisis. Nevertheless the application is adaptable to other crises around the world: The facemask shortage of COVID-19 can become the scarcity of medication during another crisis. The simple & easily adaptable solution platform can quickly be customized so that governments around the world are enabled to respond faster to a sudden crisis!
Furthermore the mindset of the affected communities could change forever. This app could learn them: Protect yourself by protecting others! This taking another important step towards crowd intelligence – an important building block of digitalization.
How We Got There
During the hackathon we have completed the following steps:
- Research and identification of challenges in our society regarding protective equipment: Online-Research; Analyze perception & experience in our personal surroundings (e.g. family & friends); Discussion of problems & decision on problem to be solved
- Deep-dive into problem space: Understanding the problem “mask availability & lack of transparency for the general public”
- Ideation on possible solutions
- Selection of approach and definition of action fields
- Documentation of concept: Mock-Up with mockplus; pitch deck; video We used the tools Miro, Zoom, Slack, mockplus and Powerpoint.
##Accomplishments We Are Proud of
We finished our first hackathon – 3 out of 4 never had participated in a hackathon before). We made it to the finish line despite a bumpy start and only little resources! We bounded and performed as a team virtually!
What We Learned
We got to know “mockplus” as a possible tool to create simple mockups for free. We figured out you can find a solution although you are no experts in this field when you are a determined and motivated team. We realized you can help yourself by helping others!
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