OutTheGC

Inspiration

Group holidays almost always die in the group chat. Everyone has different dates, budgets, and preferences, and decisions get lost in endless messages with no structure. We wanted to build something that pulls planning out of the group chat and into a single shared space where decisions are clear, visible, and easy to make.

What it does

OutTheGC is a collaborative trip-planning app that helps groups actually decide on a holiday.

You can: Create a trip and invite friends Write a shared trip brief that gives context for planning Run different types of polls to make decisions: Single-choice and multiple-choice polls Preference sliders for “vibe” decisions (e.g. city ↔ countryside) Date availability polls See results update quickly as people vote Use the collected preferences as structured input for AI-assisted planning

How we built it

Frontend: React 19 with Vite, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS Backend: FastAPI (Python) with in-memory storage for fast iteration Architecture: A simple REST API that exposes trips, members, polls, and votes

We focused on shipping a clean, usable MVP quickly, keeping the backend simple and letting the frontend handle most of the interaction and visualisation.

Challenges we ran into

Designing polls that worked for different decision types (single choice, multi-choice, sliders, dates) without overcomplicating the UI Making poll results feel clear and intuitive, especially for sliders and aggregated preferences Handling state updates cleanly so results feel “live” without using websockets Keeping the system flexible while still being simple enough to build in a hackathon timeframe

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Building a full end-to-end product: trip creation, polling, voting, and results The preference slider polls, which let users express nuance instead of binary choices A consistent, polished UI that works across all poll types A backend that cleanly supports multiple poll formats with the same API

What we learned

Structured decision-making dramatically improves group collaboration Small UX details (like how results are visualised) make a big difference to usability Keeping the backend simple allowed us to move much faster on product features Designing for real group behaviour is harder — and more interesting — than designing for a single user

What's next for OutTheGC

AI-generated trip options based on the collected poll data and trip brief Map-based itineraries and route visualisation Budget tracking and cost-splitting Persistent storage and authentication Better real-time updates for larger groups

Built With

• css
• fastapi
• python
• react19
• tailwind
• typescript