Déjà Brew

Cafe Dark Mode (Just You)
Cafe Light Mode (2 friends)

Inspiration

Remote work can feel isolating, but Déjà Brew brings back the warmth of meeting at your favourite cafe to work alongside friends. After meeting and working together this past summer, our team has scattered across different cities in Australia, but that didn't stop us from recreating the experience of grabbing coffee with friends while getting things done.

Déjà Brew is a virtual accountability cafe where you and your friends clock in together, stay on track, and celebrate progress as a team. No more solo struggles—when your group reaches a collective work goal, you unlock fun collectibles.

Distractions? Blocked. Productivity? Boosted. Together, we make remote collaboration feel familiar, motivating, and social - just like meeting up for coffee, again and again.

What it does

Déjà Brew is a virtual coworking platform designed to make remote work feel warm, social, and motivating. Available as both a Chrome extension and web app, it recreates the experience of grabbing coffee with friends while staying productive.

Join or Create a Group – Work alongside friends or colleagues in a shared virtual coffee shop.
Clock In & Stay Focused – Block distractions when working, keeping everyone accountable.
Earn Collectibles – Unlock virtual treats for reaching group productivity goals.
Improve Together – A cozy, inviting dashboard displays completed tasks and group productivity statistics.

How we built it

To bring Déjà Brew to life in just 48 hours, we went with a tech stack balancing the power and ease of use. On the front end, React and Tailwind CSS allowed us to quickly deliver a user-friendly interface. Our backend, powered by Flask and MongoDB, provided a straightforward foundation for data handling and real-time updates. We specifically selected this stack for its accessibility, which allowed our team to quickly learn and implement features under tight deadlines. To complete the app functionality, we developed a custom Chrome extension, integrating Déjà Brew directly into your browser.

Challenges we ran into

We also faced the classic hackathon time crunch, forcing us to make some tough cuts on our initial planned features. And, of course, getting our virtual cafe to look cozy and inviting with all the required assets is challenging in the timeframe of 48 hours.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully built a fully functional platform that fosters real-time collaboration and makes productivity somewhat... fun? The collective reward system, with its quirky collectibles, adds a playful twist, and seeing our virtual friends (yes, they're real to us!) pop up in the cafe and work together is incredibly warming. We also coded a Chrome extension, from scratch AND it works.

What we learned

Rapid UI Iteration with React & Tailwind: We experienced firsthand the speed of rapid prototyping using React and Tailwind CSS. Using Tailwind, we were alble quickly style components without the overhead of extensive custom CSS, a critical advantage in a short development timeframe.
Scalable API Design Under Time Pressure: We learned the importance of planning APIs ahead with future scalability in mind. Issues with data fetching and updates forced us to refactor API endpoints, which taught us how to build APIs that scales beyond just a quick demo.
Effective Communication of API Requirements: Coordinating API needs between front-end and back-end teams within a tight deadline was difficult. We learned how to give the exact API requirements to speed up development.
Feature Prioritization and Time Management: We learned to focus on developing the absolute essentials first -- make a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that showcased core functionality. This involved making tough decisions and understanding the critical path for project completion.

What's next for Deja Brew

We aim to expand our app by increasing group size limit, providing more customizable avatar options, and enriching our collectible library to offer a truly personalized experience. We are dedicated to enhancing the visual appeal of our virtual cafe, animating the cat characters to bring them to life, and creating a genuinely warm and inviting coworking environment. And because we believe in data driven productivity, we are also developing more insightful and engaging statistics. Users will be able to track their focus trends, identify their peak productivity hours, and visualize their collective group progress in a fun and interactive manner, whilst keeping each other accountable.