Idea Napkin No. 2 Week 9

1. You

I am a finance major, who is currently studying abroad in Rome. I love traveling and seeing new places, and for the most part use apps to find the best places to go see in an area and the best food to eat in that area. I even use an app to figure out the best mode of transportation in each new area. But some times when your out sight seeing you got to use the facilities, hence why I ask my self why there isn’t an app or at least a feature of an app (such as Google Maps) that lets you look up where a near by public restroom is.

2. What are you offering to customers?

The service I’m offering to customers is pretty simple; find out where the nearest public restroom in the area you are. Why spend money at restaurant to just use the facilities when a simple app integrated with Google Maps can point you in the direction of a free one, or at least one that is cheaper. Obviously the idea is mainly tailored to larger cities, that are heavy with tourists.

3. Who are you offering it to?

Primarily targeted to people who are traveling and unfamiliar with where they are, but in reality it can be used by anyone who just can’t hold it. Mainly to tourists in heavily visited areas. 

4. Why do they care?

Cause everyone has had at least one uncomfortable moment while they were out or traveling cause they didn’t use the facilities before they left the hotel or last restaurant.

5. What are your core competencies?

I have been traveling all over Italy and when your on a day trip or just far from the hotel, and you’ve got to go, I’ve found that most Italian business owners are not to receptive of a bunch of Americans trying to come in just to use the bathroom. And due to the lack of street labeling it is often hard to find a public restroom, this is simple solution to help you find one.

I think that my experience with traveling and my experience with using apps while traveling to help me find things put me in a good position to design this sort of app. It’s a simple problem with what I feel is a simple solution, that stands to provide a little bit more comfort for people traveling to new cities. Suppose that the only element I’m lacking is a background in app developing and programming.

There were a few things that I took away from the feedback left on my original post. The first thing was whether this idea could be utilized all over the world or just select cities. I feel my idea would work best for select cities that have heavy tourist attraction. Another thing I learned from the feedback was that my idea would work best as an extension of already existing apps, such as Maps or an app like TripAdvisor. The app extension could also be developed either by going out and collecting data or by users simple adding information when they come across, similar to the way Maps and TripAdvisor already function. Users would also be able to leave ratings and comments the same as either app.