Turn your NJ Transit ride into a chance for connection. Enter your train number, chat with fellow riders, and make new friends or network—all from the comfort of your seat.
One day, as we were taking the NEC train from the New Brunswick station to New York Penn station, we realized that most people were glued to their phones. We wanted to create an application that would facilitate the communication between fellow train-goers, while also embracing the reality of the role phones play in our lives today. Hence, the idea for TransitChat was born.
What it does
It's a chat app that lets you chat with fellow passengers on your train
How we built it
We decided to use ReactJS and Firebase to allow for quick development of this chat app.
Challenges we ran into
Figuring out the best way to help users connect-- we went through a lot of ideas... from a mad lib mini-game to a journey-based poetry generator... eventually we settled on the idea of a simple chat feature, with the unique identifier being the users' train number.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This was our first time creating an application using this tech stack. It was a great experience to learn and use ReactJS and Firebase in this short time period!
What we learned
Careful planning is very crucial in app development. If you don't plan correctly, you can end up not being efficient with your time.
What's next for TransitChat
Allow for more ways for users to connect, an example being the feature to play mini games with each other.
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