About Us

Adventure Planning App

LetsPlanThisThing.com

Created date: 08/18/2022

Summary

Recently I went on a couple of backpacking and kayaking trips with a group of friends, and I noticed that coordinating these events can be really difficult, so I came up with an idea for an app that would help plan a group adventure easier. Whether it’s an outdoor kayaking trip on the colorado river, camping in the Rockies, a family reunion, a wedding, or a bachelor/bachelorette party in Vegas, this app will help plan every detail. There are several apps out there that do similar things. You can schedule an event on Meetup, but you can’t specify a group of people that you want in the event. You can make communicating with each other easier. Facebook also has an event page that you can make private and only include certain people, but like meetup, it doesn't provide for coordinating a plan. Both of these apps focus on scheduling and group management. Our application will have a website and mobile apps for IOS and Android that will allow organizers to plan every aspect of their event with schedules, tasks, resources, and a flexible communication platform.

My vision for this app is that it helps manage all aspects of a group adventure. Let’s say you have a group of friends, and you have decided you all want to do something together over Labor Day weekend, but you don't know what you want to do. One of the group's leaders could go into the system and create an adventure with a date range over Labor Day weekend. This person could then add all the people in the group that said they want to participate and then send out a notification asking for idea suggestions that will be added to a poll. Everyone in the group that has a suggestion could submit it with as much detail as possible. The poll will then be assigned a start date and a deadline for responding.

After the submission deadline is up, everyone will be sent a notification to vote for their favorite suggestion. The application will use a ranked-choice voting system so that you will select your first choice, second choice, and so on. When everyone has voted, or the deadline has been hit, the main organizer can confirm the choice. An organizer can override the first choice and go for a second choice if, for example, a campground is sold out or there are no kayaks available. The voting system could also be used to pick a date. Let's say you want to do a kayaking trip and are trying to figure out what date everyone is available; you could fill in the information for the trip and add in multiple dates to be voted on.

Once the activities and the dates have been decided, the system becomes the primary communication platform for the group. When I have done group events with friends, we often have a group text to iron out the details. If someone gets added to the group, a new chat needs to be created, and the new person won't have any previous information. If someone shared a link or contact info, it could be painful to scroll through and find it again. This app will make the message board available to everyone as they are added.

The resources section will give users a place to share links and contact information for campgrounds, kayak rentals, outfitters, etc. Reservation details can be managed so users can track if someone is only doing part of the adventure. For example, if the adventure included kayaking and camping, a person could skip the camping and only do the kayaking, and everyone would be aware. Static resources like maps and routes can also be found in this section.

The gear section is what will make this app cool. When planning the adventure, a shared gear list will be created. If you are going kayaking, you could have a kayak and drybag on the list, and each participant will be able to specify if they Own, Rent, Borrow, or Loan. This will make coordinating rentals easier and sharing gear possible. It will also give people a checklist to use when packing.

When the adventure is over, a section for sharing photos, videos, and comments about the trip can be shared publicly.

Markets

This application can be used for outdoor adventures, family reunions, bachelor parties, weddings, festivals, etc.

Platform

This application will consist of a website and APIs developed in ASP.NET 6 and a mobile app that will run in both IOS and Android, which will be developed using .Net Maui.

Source control for the project will be done through Github, and the development will be managed using the issues feature.

Features

Users

This application will be user-focused. Once you are a user in the system, you can create adventures, groups, and friends with other users. When a user creates an adventure, they automatically become the admin of that adventure, and they can assign other users as organizers. They can promote someone else as an admin as well.

Friends

Users of the system can friend each other to make it easier to invite people to their adventures. There will be a search function to find people, but if someone has set their profile to private, they won't appear in the results. Just like inviting someone to an adventure, you can also invite people outside of the application to be your friend, and they will have to create an account to accept.

Groups

Users who create a group are the group's admin and can appoint other admins, but any user in the group can create an event and invite the group. Non-members must be invited into the group before including the group in their event.

Adventures

Users create adventures and can invite friends on the system, groups, and people outside the system. Someone who doesn't have an account on this system will be sent an email invite and will have to create a login to access the event.

A user can also copy a previous adventure and select what parts of the adventure to copy, including users, groups, resources, and gear lists.

A user can also create a favorite adventure template from a previous adventure and use it to create future adventures with all the pre-defined selections.

Ranked Choice Voting

This feature allows users to supply and vote on various aspects of the adventure. With ranked-choice voting, figuring out the best option is easy because you can determine the best fit for everyone without all the back and forth. The ranked-choice voting feature can be used to decide what adventure to do, where to stay, what to eat, and what kind of group activities to enjoy.

Message Board / Chat

Each adventure will have a message board to be used for communication between each of the participants for planning and coordinating the adventure. The user of the mobile app will be able to receive notifications when someone posts to the message board. Other users can opt-in for email or text notifications to alert them of posts.

Activities

An activities section will allow users to add activities to an adventure that can be scheduled in the scheduler. Each activity can have its location and be linked to other resources and gear.

Tasks

This section allows users to assign and volunteer for tasks. For example, you may need someone to find and reserve a campsite, set up a tour, or make restaurant reservations. All these tasks can be set up in a task list, and friends can volunteer to take them on, or the organizer can assign them.

Transportation / Carpooling

This section allows users to coordinate the transportation aspects of the adventure. Users can coordinate carpooling or manage tickets for public transportation.

Lodging

This feature allows each user to coordinate lodging. Whether you are reserving a group campsite or getting individual hotel accommodations, this feature helps keep everyone together.

Meal Planner

A specific planner for organizing meals, locations, and reservations. This can be useful when you need an accurate count.

Resources

The resources section will allow for tracking information about activities, including rental reservations and contacts. Static resources like maps and GPS files can also be stored in this area.

Scheduler

The scheduler is where you plan activities, tasks, meetings, etc. Activities, resources, and users can all be linked in the scheduler.

Gear

A gear list can be created based on Adventure and Activity. Each item in the list can be designated as required or suggested. Lists can also be copied from other adventures or activities and can also be saved as templates for future adventures.

Each user will also be able to create a personal gear list to track their gear and make it easier to loan items to other users and track who they lent them to. In the personal gear list, each person can add additional details about their gear, including weight, so when creating a gear pack list, you can easily determine how much weight you will carry.

Users can create a checklist for packing for the adventure between the shared and personal gear lists.

If a user needs gear for an adventure and doesn't have it on their personal list, the app can suggest matching items for sale from the gear marketplace.

Supplies

The supplies section is very similar to the gear area but targets more than consumable items like food, drinks, paper products, etc.

Emergency Information

Each user's profile can contain emergency information. Emergency contacts, allergies, etc.

Payment Tracker

The payment tracking system allows organizers to calculate the cost for shared items and track who has paid. An example would be a shared campsite where one charge will be split between everyone in the adventure or based on activity. Or a meal where one person picks up the tab but needs to get reimbursed from the group based on actual cost.

Itinerary

Each user will be able to view their itinerary from the app or the web page.

Comment Section

The comment section is for posting about the adventure during and after. This area can be shared publicly with family and friends who are not users of the application if the public flag is set.

Gear Swap Market

This section will allow users to post gear for sale so that other users can connect and purchase items. The swap market will be accessible throughout the entire platform so that any system user can contact you about your gear.

Gear calculator

Duration and climate gear list calculators based on activities. A wizard will guide you through several questions to determine your needs and suggest a basic gear list. For example, you could start the wizard and select a backpacking trip. You would be asked, “how long is the trip?”, “what the expected temperature range will be when you go?”, “Will there be access to water?” etc. When the wizard is complete, and list of suggested items and recommendations will be presented. The suggested gear can then be added to the adventure gear list or your own personal pack list.

The photo gallery allows users to upload photos that can be shared in the group with additional comments. This section will also have a flag to allow posts to be public.

User Blogs

The blog feature will allow users to write about their adventures and link to photos in the gallery. Friends and members of the group from an adventure can view a blog. The user can also make their blog public, where they can share a link for viewers without a membership, or other users who are not friends can view the content.

Bucket List

This feature allows users to add items to their bucket list for planning future adventures. Often you hear about something cool, but you aren’t able to act on it at the moment, and then you forget about it. With the bucket list feature, you can add an adventure to your bucket list, and as you do more research on it, you can add further details and attach resources. When you are ready to check an item off your bucket list, you can easily create a new adventure from the bucket list item with all your research attached as resources.

Articles

There will be an articles section of the site where users can find articles related to using the site and advice for various adventure topics. This will also be a good area for sponsors to provide content highlighting their company or product offerings related to the site content.

Conclusion

This document is meant to be a living document that will change as the project progresses. The features listed here will eventually become milestones in a git project and are here to get feedback and find interested parties to collaborate with. If you are viewing this document and would like to be involved in the project, please contact Jim Karnopp at jim@kartech.com

This is Markdown text inside of a Markdown block

  • Item 1
  • Item 2

Dynamic Data is supported:

The current Time is: 12:14:36

// this c# is a code block
for (int i = 0; i < lines.Length; i++)
{
line1 = lines[i];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(line1))
break;
}