Pin It!

Inspiration

As we explore new destinations or travel to different parts of the world, it's common to ponder the locations of public restrooms, scenic spots to catch the best sunsets, and other practical information. Additionally, even in familiar settings, we often wish a platform was available to share helpful details about nearby places, such as the passcode for a grocery store's restroom. Often, online searches for such spots and information lead to mainstream and touristy locations, and they are not a reflection of all that the area has to offer. An example of how we envisioned this app to be used is if an individual was exploring an area and discovered a potentially great photo spot, they could upload a pin on Pin It! with a #photospot tag, and then anybody who searches up #photospot on our app would see the location that they pinned.

What it does

This app prototype allows the users to mark spots of interest or locations on their map and share practical information with fellow users. It is designed for locals in the area who want to spread knowledge and also for people who are new to the area and want to discover more authentic and genuine information about a certain location. Users can create new pins on the map to share helpful information about a specific location in their area. For example, if an individual exploring a certain area discovers a good potential photo spot, they can upload the location on Pin It! with a #photospot tag, so that when others look up photo spots on the app, they can see that pin as a potential location. Users are only permitted to create pins while physically present in the area. The Explore section provides up-to-date information on hotspots, recent posts about nearby locations, and updates from those they follow. The search function on the home tab makes it easy to quickly find specific places or tags they are looking for. In addition, the search page shows recent searches, trending tags in their area, and recent points of interest pinned by other users in their current location. The filter page allows users to add tags of interest to their active tags list, which are color-coded to display locations on their map corresponding to the selected tags. By clicking on each pin on the map, users can access detailed information and read comments from other users about the corresponding location. Users can access two distinct pages on their personal profile: one for collections of saved pins and another for collections of created pins, all organized by location.

How we built it

We built and designed this app prototype using Figma and Canva. During the design process, we brainstormed functions we thought would be helpful to the users of this application and implemented them so that they would be easy to use.

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we encountered were not having a specific vision of the app's usage. We had so many ideas and it was hard to narrow down the ideas. Moreover, while we were making the app pages, we felt that some of the pages were too packed in their layout and had no breathing space. So, we had to enlarge the sizes and decrease the number of elements that were shown on each page.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the general aesthetic of the app, and the flow of the pages in the prototype. We believe that the app we designed reflects the vision we had and addresses “problems”.

What we learned

One of the biggest things we learned from the development process is the importance of testing and getting feedback from the entire team. We would regularly view the prototype making changes based on teammate feedback. We also asked for feedback from the mentors which provided more valuable feedback as we were explaining the app vision to someone new. We had to be clear and concise so mentors were able to understand the app’s functionality and provide guidance.

What's next for Pin It!

We envisioned Pin It! mainly as an area exploration app, but the functions that we designed can serve other purposes. For example, pins can also be used as safety alerts to warn people of potentially dangerous activities occurring in a certain area. If Pin It! were to be developed further, expanding the functionality of the app would be the priority.

Built With

• figma