Bathroom's Near Me (and perhaps Indoor Seating)
I would like to make an app with a map UI that tells the user if there are any public bathrooms that are still available for the general public to use, and whether you have to buy something to use it (or need a code). When one is outside, it is not uncommon to have a sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and for some this is detrimental, as they could be in unfamiliar territory and uncertain if there are any fastfood places around that still have public bathrooms available. In order to combat these situations, having an app that gathers collective information about public bathrooms would be euphoric (granted it actually works and is credible). Additionally, because of COVID, many restaurants have closed or do not provide indoor dining anymore, thus some people would buy food without knowing where to eat it at, especially under uncomfortable weather outside. Thus, having an option to also include indoor seating options for fastfood restaurants (that usually also have public bathrooms) would be useful. Because the information is user-provided, it should also have a rating system for how credible the information is, comments, and also a star ranking of how sanitary and accesible the bathroom is.
I believe anyone, literally anyone, who lives in NYC (or any industrialized city at that) and goes to school or work far from their house would benefit from this app. I, for one, would love to see something like this to actually come alive since I have been troubled by these situations far too often. I think high school and university students that might go to school very far from home could especially benefit from this app, especially since young users would be a lot more active on their phones, and could provide useful information to benefit the credibility of the app in real time.
It would provide the user with a map of their city with street numbers and avenues clearly marked, and also could have a tracking feature so that the user knows where they are (basically, something like Google Maps). But instead of having every single building marked like Google Maps, it would denote public bathroom's in the city. We would collect information beginning with fast food restaurants, that usually have public bathrooms, as well as fascilities such as Barnes &Nobles, Wholefoods, Bed Bath & Beyond and other large-scale buildings that also usually have public bathrooms. This information I suppose needs to be collected by foot in the beginning, but in the end-game should be collected by user-provided information to keep the app running and credible in real time. It could include smaller fascilities once more users provide information. Real credibility I suppose requires moderators to check the bathroom on foot, but maybe the app could become sufficient with user-provided information alone.
I think the implemenation itself is rather easy (I could be totally wrong), although making a polished UI could be challenging. Having actual information in the system is something that could be hard, perhaps having an NYU-only version could be actually feasible that provides info about availability of indoor dining in each dining hall.