Third Places

Inspiration

3rd places are disappearing or they are becoming transactional. We as a society are becoming more isolated, so we built 3rd places to help people find, create and do hobbies together in these 3rd places.

What it does

Our app highlights 3rd places where people are gathering for specific interests (e.g. chess meetup or a local hiking spot or a nice cafe)

How we built it

The front end is react native and typescript for smooth, type-safe mobile experience. The backend is firebase for the noSQL structure and authentication, and real time data syncing. We used CSS and HTML to give the app a welcoming aesthetic.

Challenges we ran into

Reimaging location feedback was a challenge. We felt that traditional quantitative metrics, like a 5-star rating system, failed to capture the soul of a "3rd place." A coffee shop might have 5 stars for its lattes but 0 stars for its community atmosphere. We challenged ourselves to design a qualitative data system that conveys how a space actually feels—focusing on "vibes" and human connection rather than just transactional efficiency

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The computer vision that auto classifies the locations, instead of having to manually type it.

What we learned

Community is important, and by finding places where people can find community and share hobbies leads to a increase in the quality of life correlating with higher happiness.