Pick your Mug

Pick the Mug logo

Inspiration

The inspiration for Pick your Mug came from our frustrations finding cafes that match our changing needs throughout the week. Existing platforms like Google Maps and Yelp provide basic information but fail to capture how our cafe preferences change based on purpose, mood, and time of day. We wanted to create a solution that understands cafe-seeking isn't one-dimensional.

What it does

Pick your Mug is a context-aware cafe discovery app that adapts recommendations based on your current needs and mood. Users select their context ("Study Mode," "Social Mode," etc.) and swipe through personalized cafe suggestions highlighting the attributes most relevant to that specific situation. The app transforms cafe hunting from a frustrating search into an enjoyable matching experience that respects how your perfect cafe changes from moment to moment.

How we built it

We built our mobile app prototype with Claude, Flutter, cursor, Netlify, and Figma tool.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was developing a flexible data model supporting multiple user contexts while maintaining efficient performance. We struggled with balancing personalization against limited initial user data and designing intuitive visual cues to explain context-specific matches. Creating a sufficiently diverse sample database with rich, context-specific attributes proved more time-consuming than anticipated.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of our creative interface, applying swipe interaction from dating app to cafe searching experience. Also, by discovering niche filter options, we hope to introduce specific cafe experiences with match percentage explanation feature that transparently shows users why a cafe ranks highly for their current context.

What we learned

This project taught us the importance of designing for diverse needs rather than static preferences. We gained the value of feature prioritization in a time-constrained environment.

What's next for Pick your Mug

We plan to add advanced recommendation systems based on weather or other surrounding settings. Also, partnerships with local cafes would be possible for creating local business value. Our vision is to transform Pick your Mug from a recommendation tool into a comprehensive cafe companion that anticipates your changing needs throughout the week, but with fun swiping experience!