SPOT

SPOT is a mobile app that helps UT students find restrooms that have free menstrual products and gender-neutral bathrooms in campus buildings, and donate menstrual supplies to students in need.

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Inspiration

Periods can be stressful enough. What makes this painful experience more distressing is the uncertainty of having access to menstrual products when we need them. Besides being expensive, menstrual products run out very quickly and there is nothing scarier than finding out that you're on your period, when you're out and about without menstrual supplies with you.

There is a dire need of free menstrual supplies at public bathrooms at UT. Even those that do have these run out often, only to rarely be restocked. Hence, we decided to build an application that helps UT students find free menstrual supplies in campus bathrooms, as well as gender-neutral bathrooms. Our mission is to alleviate the discomfort and stress that women have to face when on their period, and create an ecosystem where they don't have to worry about running out of menstrual products anymore - where they can always get help from other women nearby during an emergency.

What it does

Spot is a UT-based mobile app that helps students find free menstrual products at public bathrooms and gender-neutral bathrooms in campus buildings, track and update the availability of menstrual supplies, donate menstrual products to bathrooms in need, and alert nearby users about requests for menstrual products.

  1. Search and find restrooms with menstrual supplies - filter by building, floor, gender-neutral, and which menstrual products are available (pads, tampons, cups, lines, etc).
  2. Use and update available menstrual supplies for all users.
  3. If there are no supplies, request emergency menstrual supplies from other users. Alerts will be sent (mobile notifications) to nearby users who may donate/drop-off supplies if available.
  4. Donate menstrual supplies and earn points.

How we built it

We designed the UI using Figma and built a prototype of the app using React Native.

Challenges we ran into

  1. Lack of experience in mobile app development
  2. Time constraints
  3. The challenge of designing an app from scratch

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learnt the importance of UI/UX and how challenging it can be to perfect. We are happy that we were able to ideate and create an application prototype to change lives!

What we learned

We learned that we still have a lot to learn when it comes to mobile app development and we're thrilled to learn more! We also learnt the importance of UI/UX and how challenging it can be to perfect.

What's next for SPOT

  1. Expansion of the app to other universities, rest areas and gas stations, and then any building with public restrooms that could benefit from our application.
  2. Gamification with a donation points-based reward system to incentivize more people to donate and support the community.
  3. This application can also be applied to tracking, reporting and resolving maintenance requests in bathrooms.

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