When time is limited and caffeine is required, 20 minutes in line at the local coffee shop can be disastrous. Life is often far too busy and far too brief to be spent waiting. That's why students Yuval Galor '15, Eugene Goncharov '13 and Alex Bardasu '15 created LineSaver, an iPhone application designed to allow users to wait less and do more.
LineSaver, which became available in its tester form to 100 members of the Brandeis community on Sunday, allows users to predict how long they can expect to wait in line at any venue in the Brandeis area and beyond, including clubs, restaurants and even college cafeterias. According to Galor, who initially came up with the idea, the application will encourage users to employ available technology to become more productive. This is especially relevant, he says, in a generation that relies heavily on cell phones to share and connect.
The app, which will be free in the Apple app store, works by taking information from public feeds such as Facebook and CityGrid and transferring it to a map that is centered around the users' location. The map will include information about surrounding venues. Below the map will be a list of those relevant locations and the time a user can expect to wait at any particular hour. On the next screen, Bardasu explains, the user will see reviews and a history of past line lengths.
Accurate information is currently available through crowdsourcing, a method that relies on a large group of people contributing to the data. Once the user arrives at a venue, he or she will be able to use the app to "check-in." "That's where the active part of the user comes in," Bardasu says "He has to check the line length, and he can either specify how many people are in front of him or estimate how long he's going to wait in line." This information is fed back into the application presented to other users.
"[Crowdsourcing] is one of the reasons we think our app is going to be very effective in delivering accurate results," Bardasu says. Galor agrees with him, saying that "crowdsourcing can be more accurate than it seems. People want to be a part of this. People want to be a part of this community."
Users will not be the only ones benefiting from LineSaver, however, as Galor explains that "businesses who do implement the app will have an automatic advantage because even if the business has a long line, it's better to have some information [available through the app] than none at all." "In the long term, this might even decrease lines because there will be a bigger incentive to do so. We are going to have an effect on the world," Goncharov says.
Although the app, which the students plan to have available in the App Store by June 5, is still in its beginning stages, future plans include allowing venues to upload data directly to the app. This will add another layer of accuracy to the project by allowing businesses to become directly involved.
For Goncharov, who is mainly in charge of the public relations and marketing aspect of the project, LineSaver presents an opportunity to reach users from all over the world. "I envisioned a target audience," he says, a group that includes young students searching for clubs on the weekends as well as CEO's looking for a quick cup of coffee on the way to work. "There's a huge audience," he emphasizes, "and so far to our great surprise, nobody has really employed technology in this way."
While it is true that there is no app quite like LineSaver, Galor explains that there was in fact an app based on a similar concept. The original app failed because it only targeted five cities, and users were required to manually add locations, according to Galor.
Bardasu, who was introduced to Galor and Goncharov through Prof. Antonella Dilillo (COSI) to become the software developer of the operation, explains that the success of this, or any product, lies in the ability to "deliver it to the users in the best packaging possible." "That means creating a neat user interface and making sure that it delivers the right information to the user."
Despite having to work around the rigorous schedule of a Brandeis student, Galor, Goncharov and Bardasu all agree that several staff, including Dillilo and Prof. Timothy Hickey (COSI), have been instrumental in the process. They also agree that the "biggest aid so far is being able to talk to people who know more about this industry than we do and learn from people who have gone through similar experiences," Galor says.
If all goes as planned, LineSaver will be a time saver for everyone. "I think what's really driven us this far is that we know we will really make the world a better place," says Galor, "and maybe just by saving a few minutes for people every day, we can really make a difference in somebody's life."