What's the plan?

Inspiration## Inspiration

As the summer break nears its end, we and our friends planned numerous trips around the city. Although we did have a positive experience overall, due to poor planning, we wasted a lot of time and our schedule always took unexpected turns. Thus, we wanted to tackle this issue and optimize our meaningful time with our friends. Consequently, we decided to find a solution to improve event planning as a whole. Despite having no experience in app development, we decided to design a prototype mobile application since it would be an effective way to give access to others around the globe.

What it Does

“What’s the Plan” is an app prototype that essentially takes away all the main complaints that people have when planning a group or solo outing whether it be big or small. To begin there is a calendar section where you are able to set the days you are unavailable, and the app will compare your calendar to the others in your group (which were previously added into the group event via social media quick adding) This will then allow the app to set on a date without the hassle of confirming a date one by one with everyone involved. This furthermore also adjusts itself when group members have changes of plans and sends out notifications to adjust dates. In addition to finding a date that works, finding activities that work for everyone while also being indecisive on what to do was a common problem, to remedy this the ideas sections comes in handy. Here all members can add in their ideas, linked to an actual place where we can go using the built in search algorithm that will use keywords and give back options based off of star ratings, user interactions and location proximity. This will allow the app to right away know where the idea will take place and for more detail to be involved in the voting section, where everyone can vote days in advance of the trip on the different activities. Once all the activities are decided they are seamlessly converted into a readable itinerary that is compact, but can be broken down for more detail on any specific activity. It can be save to drive in the case that Wi-Fi is unavailable. All sections include a messenger icon, which can be swapped with any other linked social media, which links the app to any group chat of choice so that messaging and planning can be done seamlessly through cross- app interaction. Finally, the to-bring/ to-do list section is split into 2 parts: a solo list that is personal and is for yourself, and a group list where all the event-goers can have a communal list for anything that they will share as to not pack the same thing too many times.

How we built it

After extensive brainstorming on the service and the many features, google jamboard was used to draw a very simple sketch of our desired app design. Afterwards we sought to create an app prototype design which was subsequently developed using the Figma software applying both UI and UX knowledge we were introduced to during the workshop events. We felt that this strategy suited our abilities as well as what we were interested in learning over the course of the event. We used the many resources at our disposal to design an app which has several features and many sections.

Challenges we ran into

The primary challenge of our project was the lack of programming knowledge in general. Initially, we were driven to learn an app development software as fast as we could within the hackathon duration. Needless to say, we quickly recognized that none of us were experienced enough to learn such a diverse skill in such a short amount of time. Instead, as engineering students, we opted to design a prototype using Figma. For our first hackathon, we decided to thus focus on the aesthetics, UI and overall idea of the app.

The second issue was the rise of conflicting ideas within the team. Initially, we had decided the primary features of the app and each designed a different part of the application. Long story short, it turned out that we all had different ideas and creations. When we assembled all of our designs in one, it looked completely out of place. Because of this, we had to discuss the themes and aesthetic details before actually designing the frames. One advantage in creating three unique creations was that we could throw all of our ideas into a final, refined prototype. Overall, we learned that diverse ideas within a team are advantageous because we are able to build upon each others’ thought processes.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As this was our first hackathon we were very intimidated by the expectations to develop a solution to a problem during the limited competition period. By the end of the competition, we were able to apply our knowledge and experience to think of a real-life problem and create a feasible solution to it while developing a business pitch and thinking about the economics of the situation, which is a situation that resembles projects in the workplace that goes beyond the classroom. We are very proud of these accomplishments and are also very happy to gain skills in UI/UX design, and business and presentation skills. This positive experience has encouraged us to reach further and participate in future hackathons.

What we learned

During the extensive weekend hackathon we have learned a multitude of both soft and technical skills. Technically, we gained experience in UI/UX design and learned to use the design software Figma. We also learned about the general idea of app development and the idea generating process. In terms of soft skills, business presentation and writing along with teamwork, conflict management, and compromise were some of the most critical skills that we took away from this hackathon. Both of these areas are highly applicable and beneficial to our future careers and academics. In addition, we learned many interesting and cool new skills through the many workshops that were held over the week. We particularly enjoyed the UI/UX workshops as it was most applicable to our project.

What's next for “What's the plan”?

“What’s the plan?” is still very much in its prototyping phase and would definitely greatly benefit from the help of software engineers to bring it to life. The imaginative design and problem that it solves will definitely be able to be a great help to anyone whether it be to plan a move, a wedding, an event with friends, or travelling on your own. We hope to be able to bring all these features to life to be able to make having fun be as stress free and as consistent as possible, while allowing our users to be able to experience things they would never have before.

Built With

• css
• figma