JavaJar | Devpost

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Inspiration

We recognized a common struggle among individuals to manage impulsive spending on non-essential items. Our core inspiration stemmed from the desire to create a simple yet effective mechanism for delaying gratification and fostering more mindful purchasing decisions. By introducing a waiting period, we aimed to empower users to differentiate between genuine needs and fleeting wants, ultimately leading to reduced unnecessary large expenses.

What it does

This application allows users to create a curated list of desired, potentially costly items they are considering purchasing. Once the user finalizes their initial list, the application implements a mandatory "cooling-off" period, locking the list for a duration of two to four weeks. Following this waiting period, the list unlocks, enabling the user to review their initial entries and categorize them into items they no longer want, items they remain uncertain about, and items they have already acquired.

How we built it

Our initial design process heavily relied on visual prototyping tools, with Figma serving as our primary platform for crafting the user interface and user experience flows. To create the business plan we utilized Google Docs for its robust text editing and organizational capabilities. This combination of design and documentation tools allowed us to effectively visualize and articulate our product concept without immediately delving into code development.

Challenges we ran into

Our team's limited technical proficiency presented a significant hurdle, requiring us to scale back some of our more ambitious initial concepts. This constraint necessitated iterative adjustments to our feature set, leading to a couple of instances where we had to pivot our design direction. Furthermore, the limited timeframe allocated for the project restricted our ability to experiment with novel technologies or explore more complex functionalities.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite our lack of coding experience, we successfully developed a comprehensive and detailed prototype that effectively communicates the core functionality and user journey of our application. We are particularly proud of our resilience in overcoming moments of discouragement and the temptation to abandon the project altogether. Ultimately, we persevered and submitted a tangible representation of our idea, which we believe demonstrates our commitment and effort.

What we learned

A key takeaway from this project was the importance of aligning our project scope with our existing skill set to ensure achievable outcomes within the given constraints. We learned that focusing on leveraging our current strengths, rather than dedicating significant time to mastering new skills mid-project, can lead to more tangible progress. This experience highlighted the value of practical application and iterative refinement based on our existing capabilities.

What's next for JavaJar

Our immediate next step for JavaJar involves transitioning our current prototype from a conceptual design into a fully functional mobile application. This will entail exploring suitable development platforms and potentially seeking expertise in software development to bring our envisioned features to life. Our long-term goal is to launch JavaJar and gather user feedback to continually refine and enhance its capabilities for effective expense management.