Inspiration
About 1/4th of the world’s population lacks access to decent toilets, only 39% of human waste is safely managed worldwide, and the global cost of inadequate sanitation reaches $260 billion annually (Pysche). With declining access to restrooms, proper sanitation and hygiene needs of the homeless and general public are equally affected. As someone with a gastrointestinal condition myself, I am often in need of a bathroom at random times without warning. Additionally, being in a new city can make finding a public bathroom fast even harder. We hope this app is able to serve the greater public in being able to take care of their bodily functions with ease.
What it does
Our app prompts for a user's location and based on said location, shows a user the closest few bathrooms on a map using markers, with information regarding how far each bathroom is, if the bathroom has an accessibility stall, if the bathroom has a baby changing station, if the bathroom has a unisex bathroom option, directions to get to the bathroom, and reviews users can post through the app rating the quality of the bathroom. We have a separate screen that allows users to set specific preferences related to bathroom needs, view achievements for how many reviews they've posted, and add/view other reviews for bathrooms from other users and the AI generated summary of the general reviews. Our last screen represents a sign in/login/signout page through settings.
How we built it
We used React Native to build the mobile app, Expo to test it on our phones, Firebase for database and authorization, and the RapidAPI Public Bathrooms API and Gemini API to pull information and summarize reviews.
Challenges we ran into
We originally struggled with getting our data to be fetched properly and in figuring out the original map and navigation services, since neither of us had ever used that before. With the help of some AI for debugging, we were able to push through this and figure out how to utilize the services we wanted in our app.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to be able to flesh out a full-stack mobile app by ourselves, as we have had limited exposure to app development with React Native beforehand. We are also proud that our app maintains aesthetics while also holding quality.
What we learned
We learned that patience is key. We had to restart our project at one point as we were trying to overcomplicate certain features and fixated on them, and we learned that one way does not define all potential ways, and sometimes restarts really are necessary for projects, especially when you are learning.
What's next for Toodaloo
We hope to add more functionality regarding a search bar by zip code for more precise wayfinding, adding feedback tools, adding more achievements, and potentially pushing this app to the App Store when it is ready.
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