Roomies

A simple way to manage chores with your family, friends, and roommates.

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Inspiration

Mazvita Ngorosha: A close friend of mine was encouraging her siblings at home to do their chores whilst she is away at college. She had created a spreadsheet where chores are assigned to her siblings and they would log their progress for each day. This is how the idea for Roomies came about.

Idea: A web app where families, friends, and roommates can assign and manage household chores.

What it does

Our Web App, Roomies, allows the user to create members (roomies) and chores. The app then randomly assigns the chores to the roomies. The user can also delete the roomies and chores. The goal was to post the roomies weekly and rank them from 1st to 3rd on the Leaderboard page, according to their consistency and commitment to their chores. We were not able to add this feature in the time and with the skills and resources we had. This is definitely a big feature we would like to implement in our Web App. The App also has a page dedicated to the developers, Mazvita Ngorosha, Julie Biaunie, Arooj Saeed, and Alexandra Rivera. This page shows the pictures of us the developers and provides links to our LinkedIn Accounts and Resumes.

How we built it

We built it using HMTL, CSS, and JavaScript. Mazvita worked on the HTML and CSS of the pages, creating and maintaining a cohesive style and aesthetic. Julie focused mainly on the JavaScript of the web app, making sure that the buttons and the user interaction worked perfectly. Alexandra worked on the DevTeam page, working with HTML and CSS. She worked to create an amazing showcase page for the developers and incorporated some fun styling. Arooj worked on the prototype, mostly on Figma as well as in the brainstorming of ideas. All together we collaborated seamlessly and brainstormed ideas together to create our App.

Challenges we ran into

We really enjoyed working with HTML and CSS to create our App, however, we all faced a challenge when we were working with JavaScript because we are not proficient in the language. We worked really hard to make the application dynamic and interactive by watching JavaScript tutorials and asking for help from our friends, mentors, and the internet. Although working with JavaScript for the first time for most of us was challenging, we took it as a learning opportunity and were able to create a functioning app. Julie took the lead on the challenge and we worked with her to make the code work. We are proud that we were able to continue working with JavaScript, despite feeling inexperienced in the language.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are so proud of our App! We worked really hard together to make it happen and were able to accomplish our key goals. We definitely see a need and real-life purpose for our app and being able to come up with the idea, plan it out, visualize, and produce was a lot of fun for all of us. We worked really well together and built real connections and community. Our collaboration is another accomplishment that we are so proud of.

What we learned

We learned how to use GitHub to commit and push, pull, and clone code effectively whilst working in a team remotely. We learned how to use Figma to create blueprints and prototypes that helped us in seeing our app before we even made it. We learned how to visualize without limitations and then to put our ideas into working code. We learned how to use VS Code and to collaborate whilst we are in different states. We learned how to use Discord to share information, updates, and resources. We created channels and study rooms in which we could work as though we were all together in one place. We learned how to work together and share ideas and try new things. We learned how to ask for help and how to know which questions to ask in order to receive the help we needed. We learned how to be part of a Hackathon, this was the first Hackathon for most of us.

What's next for Roomies

We would like to see Roomies become a fully functional Web and Mobile Application, easily accessible on the internet. Here are some goals for our Web App.

BIG PICTURE: Vision for a fully functional Roomies App

  • Ability to log in and track chore completion
  • A leaderboard that updates weekly to show the roomies that are completing chores consistently. Badges that Roomies accumulate for completing tasks.
  • Add rooms that you can enter or leave depending on who and where you are living at the time. If you live at home for the holidays and on-campus during the school year, you can have 2 rooms that you can enter or leave.
  • Integrate with big transaction companies ie: PayPal, Venmo, CashApp to incentivize completion of chores. Parents can give their children weekly allowances for completing 80% or more of their chores. College roommates can set up the app in such a way that if a roomie does not complete their chores, they lose money. They might set up a monthly deposit of $25 and lose some percentage of that deposit if they do not complete their chores. The money they lose for not completing their chores can be set up to be donated to a charity of the roommates' choice. This would encourage them to complete their chores and if not, still be beneficial to a good cause.
  • Extend the rewards/leaderboard to a social platform, where users compete against other households to be at the top for implementing chores about sustainability such as recycling and could be sponsored by sustainability-minded companies or local businesses.

Roomies is an important application and we hope to continue working on it after the Black Wings Hackathon and to create it into an everyday tool for people.

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