AryanKukreja / LeapQueue

A Store-Review Application that Focuses on Performance during a Pandemic

LeapQueue Mobile Application

This project is for a mobile application that lets users create (and view) reviews for stores that are specifically tailored to their performance during the COVID-19 Pandemic (and possible pandemics in the future 😬). The reviews will cover:

• Efficiency of staff personal (is there adequate staff to ensure social-distancing and other norms of the pandemic?)
• Item availability in the store
• Queue times (for entering the stores, at checkout, etc...)
• Time the reviewer reached the store (this will help decide whether that is a good time to reach or not)

The name "LeapQueue" was chosen because users will be able to pick the best time to visit a particular store based on the reviews.

Motivation

Multiple sources of motivtion existed for this project:

1. This project was originally started as part of a Hackathon
2. My personal experience of waiting in the long queues in a store made me realize that people should be able to share information on their experiences at a store in a pandemic, so that others can prepare accordingly. If users are aware of long queues at a particular time, then they would pick another time to visit; this would help stagger out the arrival times more widely, and make the queues shorter at peak times (hopefully).

Status

This is a current work-in-progress, on the software develpment side as well as handling the logistics of going live.

Tech Stack

At the basic level, this project is built with Gradle. Java is the programming language, and Android SDK is used atop it. Other tools/APIs used were:

• Google Firebase: Used to maintain a list of users, and handle account sign-in/up (along with email verification). The FirestoreDB was used to save reviews, stores and non-auth information of users.
• Bing Maps: The Local Search API endpoint was used to find a store that the user searches. As a result, this app currently only works in the USA.
• Material UI

Features

This app comes with the following capabilities:

1. Users are guided through the review-creation process with built-in questions, and there is an option for extra comments as well.
2. Users are able to register for an account, add personal info (First and Last Name), and delete their account, all with with ease
3. The profile page shows statistics for a user (number of reviews, join date, average score, etc...)
4. Number of reviews per day and week is capped to prevent abuse and spam of the system (Work-In-Progress)