unmasked.

Our Inspiration

When wearing face masks became obligatory in the region we live in (South of Germany), we've personally experienced the effects via different media channels & within our community: family & friends were desperately looking for a possibility to find masks (additionally: at a reasonable price) and mask shortage was THE trending topic everywhere. But still: you could actually buy masks at places you would have never expected or you didn't have those places in your mind. Thus we decided to take action in order to overcome this gap between demand & availability!

Problem Statement

Wearing a face mask is required or recommended in more and more European countries, leading to an incredibly high demand for face masks. This has three main effects:

People are visiting various shops to find their mask when they should actually stay at home.

People feel left alone with the mask shortage and fall victim to extraordinarily overpriced masks.

Some places still have masks in stock, but this information is not known to everybody.

Our Solution

We want to implement a crowd-based information platform creating transparency around critical protective equipment’s availability. The app / website provides an overview of available masks, locations and prices at your fingertips. The look and feel of the application is similar to „aroundME“, but is focused on face masks. There are two main functionalities:

To find the mask they want & need, customers can search for mask vendors sort/filter them e.g. by type, distance, price. Stores and private sellers are then suggested along with further information on the masks' availability and further characteristics. For customers, no registration is required. However, this is optional. (Purchasing online is not possible because we want to focus on increasing transparency in our local communities.)
Both mask vendors (stores or private sellers) and customers can register and update the vendors' available stock. The provided information includes the type of mask, price, characteristics, available numbers (none, some 1-10, many 10-XX available) and photos for proof. In order to allow for qualitative information, stores have to create an account (if they take part on the platform) to go through a short validation process to become "trusted". However, vendors can also be registered by consumers based on personal information. Customers can also register themselves in order to track their "Unmasker"-Status (i.e. how many updates they have already made).

We unmask your way to take care for yourself & others!

Our solution is...

Transparent About what to find where and at which criteria.

Crowd-based Information to make the most out of our potential as a society.

Simple Usage for everyone – both vendors & customers! (free of charge).

LevelUp: Possible Product Enhancements

After the main functions have been implemented, further product enhancements are possible:

Extension to other critical or crisis-related products (e.g. hand sanitizers, protective gloves)

Connection to offline media (e.g. local newspapers, print option for elderly people)

Share further information around masks (e.g. different types, tailor instructions, approved important news)

Delivery preview for customers by vendors (e.g. delivery of 20 new masks on next day)

Extra payments for equipment reservation (i.e. premium offer; but: no online purchase to avoid mass purchases)

Incentives / rewards for stock registrations & updates

Use as major platform to gather crisis data (e.g. for governments & research institutes)

Our Solution’s Impact

First of all, the application helps people to minimize physical exposure to crowded places like stores when searching for a mask. Secondly it gives everybody the ooportunity to become active in times when this seems impossible - Help yourself by helping others!. Thirdly, critical products are distributed better amongst the general public due to enhanced access & visibility. Moreover the provided transparency reduces the risk of falling victim to big retailers’ exorbitant prices! Finally it is supporting local vendors & communities by utilizing their swarm intelligence & power - Think globally, act locally!

Our Solution’s Value Post-Crisis

Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the application will not necessarily be used for face masks only anymore because the focus is to provide essential protective equipment during this specific crisis. Nevertheless, the application is highly adaptable to any other crises around the world: the face mask shortage of COVID-19 today can become the scarcity of medication during another crisis tomorrow - or already is! The simple & easily adaptable solution platform can quickly be customized so that governments around the world are enabled to respond faster to a sudden crisis!

Furthermore the mindset of the affected communities could change forever. This app could teach them an important lesson: Protect yourself by protecting others! And digitalization allows us to use our common swarm intelligence - for the good of our society!

How We Got There

During the hackathon we have completed the following steps:

Research and identification of challenges in our society regarding protective equipment: Online-Research; Analyze perception & experience in our personal surroundings (e.g. family & friends); Discussion of problems & decision on problem to be solved (Problem Space)

Deep-dive into problem space: Understanding the problem “mask availability & lack of transparency for the general public”(Problem Space)

Ideation on possible solutions (Solution Space)

Selection of approach and definition of action fields (Solution Space)

Documentation of concept: Mock-Up with mockplus; pitch deck; video We used the tools Miro, Zoom, Slack, mockplus and Powerpoint.

Accomplishments We Are Proud Of

We finished our first hackathon – 3 out of 4 never had participated in a hackathon before!

We made it to the finish line despite a bumpy start and only little resources! (people, expertise, time)

We bounded and performed super well as a team virtually - even though we haven't met within our company before!

What We Learned

We got to know “mockplus” as a possible tool to create simple mockups for free!

We figured out that you can find & work on a solution although you have no deep expertise in a specific field just by having a determined and highly-motivated team!

We realized that you can help yourself by helping others!

What's Next for unmasked.

To implement the application and provide the benefits to all communities, the following steps are necessary:

Involvement of different stakeholders for different purposes (e.g. governments, retail chains, research institutes, customers)

User validation (customers & vendors)

Development of App / Website (incl. UX/UI)

Marketing / Promotion by major stakeholders

To realize the above, investment & resources are needed - with little effort we can achieve a great impact on managing the crisis.

Our vision: Making access to critical goods during crises a basic human right.