DevMatch

DevMatch, build your projects

Inspiration

We were inspired by conversations at the hackathon and our own experiences as students. Many of us have ideas for projects or skills we want to use, but it’s often hard to find the right collaborators. Sometimes you have an idea but need someone with a different skill set, like a designer or backend developer. Other times you have the skills but no project to join. We realized that there isn’t a student-focused platform that helps people connect around building projects, so we decided to build one.

What it does

DevMatch is a student-only platform that helps students find collaborators, teammates, and project opportunities.

With DevMatch, students can: • Post a project and look for collaborators with specific skills • Join existing projects that match their interests • Discover other students with complementary skills • Connect and message potential teammates

The platform is designed specifically for students, starting with universities like the University of Alberta, with potential verification through student accounts or OneCard in the future.

DevMatch helps students turn ideas into real projects by making it easier to find the right people.

How we built it

We built DevMatch as a mobile application using React Native.

Our workflow included: • Figma for designing the UI and user flow • React Native / Expo for building the mobile app • Component-based architecture for reusable UI elements • Mock data structures to simulate project posts, profiles, and matches

The app structure includes: • Home – recommended projects and collaborators • Projects – browse or create project listings • Match – discover potential collaborators • Messages – connect and communicate with teammates • Profile – manage skills, interests, and project goals

We divided the work among team members so each person owned a major part of the product (home, projects, matching/messaging, and profile/auth).

Challenges we ran into

One challenge was designing a platform that works for multiple use cases. Some users want to start projects, some want to join projects, and others simply want to meet collaborators. We had to design flows that supported all of these without making the app confusing.

Another challenge was building the matching logic within a limited hackathon timeframe. Ideally, the system would intelligently match users based on skills, interests, and availability, but implementing a fully functional recommendation system in a short time was difficult.

We also had to coordinate UI design and development simultaneously, making sure the components built in React Native matched our Figma designs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to turn an idea into a working mobile prototype in a short amount of time.

Some highlights include: • Designing a full user flow from signup to finding collaborators • Creating a clean and intuitive mobile interface • Building multiple functional screens including projects, matching, and messaging • Structuring the app in a scalable way so it could evolve into a real platform

Most importantly, we built something that students could realistically use to start building projects together.

What we learned

Through this project we learned: • How to rapidly design and prototype an app using Figma and React Native • How to break down a product idea into clear features and responsibilities across a team • The importance of user experience and simplicity when designing a collaboration platform • How to think about matching systems and recommendation logic for connecting people

We also learned how valuable collaboration is — which perfectly reflects the problem our app is trying to solve.

What's next for DevMatch

Our next steps would be to turn DevMatch from a prototype into a real platform.

Future improvements include: • Implementing AI-powered matching based on skills, interests, and availability • Adding real-time messaging and notifications • Creating a verification system using university emails or OneCard to ensure the platform stays student-focused • Expanding beyond one university to support multiple campuses • Integrating project progress tracking and collaboration tools

Our goal is to make DevMatch the go-to platform for students who want to build meaningful projects together.