Mooimakers

Mooimakers’ mission is to keep the streets, parks, and… clean from litter and garbage lying around. Where citizens could previously report garbage via a web platform, from now on they can report it in their mobile app the instant they notice it lying around. Due to live tracking in the application, the technical teams can instantly find the exact location and plan the pick up efficiently. By giving users the ability to add pictures, the technical team even knows what vehicle will fit the operation best. We were happy this project landed with us because it supports one of our strategic pillars; our planet.

The app wants to give the citizens, who are engaging in collecting litter in their area, a smart tool to track their pick up and exchange information with their local authorities. A nice plus is that the application also activates citizens to get their butts in action. A nice win-win, right? Other than that, the application creates a community of “ploggers”, joggers picking up litter. A Strava-like concept. The community building as a result of multiple people using the app in the same region is a nice bonus, it encourages users to actively make reports and keeps the streets clean.

Before Mooimakers introduced the mobile application, volunteers had no idea what happened to their reports. Was the garbage picked up? Were they able to locate it properly? Thanks to the app's notifications, users receive a message when the technical team picks up their reported garbage. This encourages them to keep an eye out and make reports. Users will also get notifications when another user follows them or likes their route or post.

After the initial release, we continued working on the application's front end. The newest features, such as a community tab, enhance the app’s social dimension through both private and public groups. These groups motivate each other to clean litter by giving members the possibility to post messages in the group and organize community clean-up events. Another added feature allows users to like each other's routes and rate them. The rating system started on a scale of 1-10 but eventually got simplified to a 1-3 scale. Communities can be set up and used by schools, associations, or just a group of friends.

In addition to the community tab, we also created an events tab. These events can be private or public; when public, they are also accessible to users who aren’t part of a community. Want to make a difference? Search by event name or postal code! This way, you’ll quickly find events in your neighborhood. For the data enthusiasts among us, you can view statistics on the amount of litter collected! If you attended one of these events and posted the route to your profile, other users can see that this route was a part of that event.

We were involved in building this application's front end, and it was only logical to build it in Flutter. Flutter allowed us to build an application compatible with both iOS and Android while still being able to make platform-specific changes. Our existing component library would help speed up the development phase. With the framework’s dynamic interface and fun widgets, we could easily create a user-friendlyapplication that appeals to a large, diverse audience. For some of the features, like background tracking, we had to build our own native package. We, later on, open-sourced this package for other developers to use as well. At icapps, we strongly believe that the open-source community is a good way to share knowledge and intellectual property.

Minsky is responsible for the back end and web portal development. Studio Lastpak is the partner for the UX & UI design, and responsible for the overall coordination of the project. Since we had to join forces with multiple companies to create a successful application, we instantly noticed that communication was key. With an agile mindset, we were able to align the various stakeholders quickly and set up weekly meetings to talk the project through. Open communication and transparency were appreciated both by the customer and the other parties involved. This resulted in a pleasant collaboration with all parties involved.