This was one of my first team software projects at RIT. We made a prototype where students could choose their residence hall, see which washers and dryers were available, and start a 55-minute laundry timer. It was also where I met my friend Jimmy, who I am still friends with today, and it gave me my first real experience building software with other people.
My first team experience
The most important part of this project for me was learning how to work on software with a team for the first time. We had to agree on what the app should do, divide the pages and features, share our code, and bring everything back together into one flow.
It was a great introduction to collaborating instead of building everything alone. I also met my friend Jimmy through the project, and we are still friends today.
Choosing a dorm
The prototype starts with a simple RIT email login and then asks the student to choose one of thirteen residence halls. The selected dorm is saved in localStorage and carried to the machine page.
Availability and timers
The machine screen uses a green outline for available washers and dryers and a red outline for machines that are in use. Choosing an available machine opens a status page with a 55-minute countdown.
This was a front-end prototype rather than a connected campus system. We designed a JSON structure for thirteen dorms and eight machines per dorm, but the final pages still used hardcoded machine states and the timer reset if the page was refreshed.