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PayItForward: Mobile payment app with the ability to round up payments to participating vendors.

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Problem statement

This is in answer to question #2 of Giving Back: Whilst Singapore is considered a developed nation, there are still many who are less fortunate than others. How can we embrace inclusivity and integrate people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised?

We were inspired by the concept of Caffè sospeso, a practice prevalent in Europe of buying a cup of coffee in advance for anyone who may need it later on.

Our app

So we created PayItForward, a mobile payment application which aims to encourage users to donate a small amount of money everytime they make a payment. PayItForward aims to work with different merchants to allow customers to donate whenever they make a payment. This donation can then be used by recipients who are financially needy to redeem items from merchants.

The surplus from rounding up your payment whenever you visit a vendor will go towards that vendor's tab. When that tab has accumulated enough to buy an item, a recipient who visits that vendor can redeem that item for free, courtesy of the tab and all the benefactors. In addition, outright donations go to our central charity fund, which we will use to perform donation drives that raise awareness towards marginalised communities.

Features

Home Page

PayItForward allows users to view the total amount they have donated. Users can also view their ranking.

Payment Page

PayItForward allows users to round up their payment and the excess will be donated to the different merchants. Registered users who are financially needy can also use the same payment application and the donation made can be used to offset the payment.

Donation Page

PayItForward allows users to directly donate certain amount they want.

History Page

PayItForward allows users to view their past transactions and the amount they have donated.

How we built it

First, we brainstormed for ideas that would fit the problem statement, then we planned our UI within Figma. Afterwards, we divided the tasks amongst ourselves, learning as we did. While we used different platforms of choice, we used react-native, and tested our app using Android emulators equipped with Expo.

Challenges

Some of us were new to the stack and there wasn't enough time to fit in the learning of some of these technologies within a working day. Therefore, we have learned that we should set some time aside from a project's schedule to learn about new technologies.

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