Rumie

Chat for Matched People
Pets!
Post a Listing
Profile Setup
List of People You've Matched With
Authentication via email log in, then Face ID/Passcode fallback
Budget and Habits
Profile Creation
Authentication
Housing Section
Interests and Personality
Match!
Interests and Personality
Roommate Discovery Page
Bio

Inspiration

Starting college comes with a lot of uncertainty, and one of the biggest stressors early on is finding the right roommate and housing situation. Many existing platforms feel outdated, impersonal, or overly complicated, making it difficult for students to find people they genuinely connect with. We wanted to create something that makes the roommate search process feel less stressful and more social, accessible, and student-focused. Rumie was inspired by our own experiences and the struggles we saw around us during early college life.

What it does

Rumie simplifies and streamlines the college roommate and housing search experience. The platform is designed to help students discover compatible roommates, explore housing opportunities, and make connections in a more intuitive and modern way. Instead of endlessly scrolling through disorganized listings or relying on word-of-mouth, students can use Rumie to centralize their search and make the process faster, easier, and less overwhelming.

How we built it

We built Rumie using Flutter for cross-platform development and Tailwind CSS for creating a clean, responsive, and modern user interface. Development was done primarily in Visual Studio Code, where we collaborated on both frontend functionality and overall application design. Our focus throughout the build process was rapid iteration, usability, and creating a foundation that could realistically scale into a production-ready application.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was working with technologies and frameworks that were either new or unfamiliar to us. Learning while building under a tight deadline pushed us out of our comfort zones and forced us to adapt quickly. Another major challenge was design. We quickly realized that building a functional application is only part of the process — creating an experience that feels intuitive, polished, and visually appealing is equally important and much harder than we initially expected.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are especially proud of how much progress we made within just 24 hours. What started as an idea quickly turned into a working application with a clear vision and strong potential. We pushed Rumie much closer to becoming a real App Store-ready product than we originally thought possible in such a short timeframe. Beyond the technical side, we are proud that we stayed persistent, collaborated effectively, and continued improving the project despite the challenges we faced.

What we learned

This project taught us that design plays a critical role in the development lifecycle and should never be treated as an afterthought. A well-designed interface can completely change how users experience a product. We also learned the importance of adaptability, communication, and rapid problem-solving when working under pressure. Most importantly, we gained hands-on experience with modern development tools and workflows that will help us in future projects.

What's next for Rumie

Our next steps for Rumie include preparing the application for App Store release, improving the overall user experience, and refining the platform’s visual design. We also plan to focus on marketing, outreach, and growing awareness among students who could benefit from the platform. Long term, we want to continue expanding Rumie into a complete ecosystem for college housing and roommate matching, with smarter recommendations, stronger community features, and a more polished end-to-end experience.