Thoughts On An App Idea

[Michael Boroda]

Hello,

Wanted to get some outside opinions on an app idea - a crowdsourced public washroom review aggregator / GPS locater that incentivizes users to leave restroom reviews / ratings as well as add new restroom locations, cleanliness ratings, and pics to the app by incorporating points, badges, and the ability to unlock games whenever you complete one of these tasks (not unlike Foursquare).

There are some existing restroom locater apps already, and they have few downloads / don’t have the best benefits in my opinion (i.e. illegitimate bathroom locations, lack of pictures, lack of games or entertainment / boring, no cleanliness ratings / reviews, very basic and unfriendly U.I.). Wanted to get an outside opinion on whether you think there’s an actual need to find and rate public washrooms in order to incentivize businesses to maintain better cleanliness (particularly for free washrooms, or for travellers who don’t know the area too well). Would anyone actually pay for this, even if it’s only $1-$2? Think of it almost as a Yelp for public restrooms.

 

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[loop101]

Hello,

Wanted to get some outside opinions on an app idea - a crowdsourced public washroom review aggregator / GPS locater that incentivizes users to leave restroom reviews / ratings as well as add new restroom locations, cleanliness ratings, and pics to the app by incorporating points, badges, and the ability to unlock games whenever you complete one of these tasks (not unlike Foursquare).

There are some existing restroom locater apps already, and they have few downloads / don’t have the best benefits in my opinion (i.e. illegitimate bathroom locations, lack of pictures, lack of games or entertainment / boring, no cleanliness ratings / reviews, very basic and unfriendly U.I.). Wanted to get an outside opinion on whether you think there’s an actual need to find and rate public washrooms in order to incentivize businesses to maintain better cleanliness (particularly for free washrooms, or for travellers who don’t know the area too well). Would anyone actually pay for this, even if it’s only $1-$2? Think of it almost as a Yelp for public restrooms.

I was once going to make a website called "horrifying bathrooms" to try and shame gas station owners in to cleaning their bathrooms. I ended up just putting a porta-potti in my van. You should make the app free, but charge business owners to dispute the reviews. I think that is what Yelp does.

 

[marble]

Restroom locator? I really don't see the need for it. Where there's civilization, there's a restroom. Any fast food joint or retail store will have a restroom. As far as reviews or pictures, I don't really care as I am there to finish what I need to do and leave ASAP, and I suspect others want the same.

Really the only real use case for this is for travelers, because how often in your everyday life do you think, "I really need to go, but I just can't find a restroom anywhere! If only there was an app..." Even then, you can still apply the same logic of wherever there's civilization, there's a restroom.

Also I just realized taking pictures in restrooms is illegal, so there's that.

The Need is already bad to begin with in my opinion, but charging even a dollar for the app is the nail in the coffin. Your best bet for an app like this is to run Google AdSense, and then charge a monthly or one-time fee to remove adds as an option.

 

[Hurks2048]

Hello,

Wanted to get some outside opinions on an app idea - a crowdsourced public washroom review aggregator / GPS locater that incentivizes users to leave restroom reviews / ratings as well as add new restroom locations, cleanliness ratings, and pics to the app by incorporating points, badges, and the ability to unlock games whenever you complete one of these tasks (not unlike Foursquare).

There are some existing restroom locater apps already, and they have few downloads / don’t have the best benefits in my opinion (i.e. illegitimate bathroom locations, lack of pictures, lack of games or entertainment / boring, no cleanliness ratings / reviews, very basic and unfriendly U.I.). Wanted to get an outside opinion on whether you think there’s an actual need to find and rate public washrooms in order to incentivize businesses to maintain better cleanliness (particularly for free washrooms, or for travellers who don’t know the area too well). Would anyone actually pay for this, even if it’s only $1-$2? Think of it almost as a Yelp for public restrooms.

Neat idea!
However, the only way I could see it working would be creating the service then licensing the service/data to other apps/ brands. This way, you’d be able to leverage their growth as a means of getting traffic, while you could focus on improving the product.

 

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[Michael Boroda]

I was once going to make a website called "horrifying bathrooms" to try and shame gas station owners in to cleaning their bathrooms. I ended up just putting a porta-potti in my van. You should make the app free, but charge business owners to dispute the reviews. I think that is what Yelp does.

That's interesting!

 

[Michael Boroda]

Restroom locator? I really don't see the need for it. Where there's civilization, there's a restroom. Any fast food joint or retail store will have a restroom. As far as reviews or pictures, I don't really care as I am there to finish what I need to do and leave ASAP, and I suspect others want the same.

Really the only real use case for this is for travelers, because how often in your everyday life do you think, "I really need to go, but I just can't find a restroom anywhere! If only there was an app..." Even then, you can still apply the same logic of wherever there's civilization, there's a restroom.

Also I just realized taking pictures in restrooms is illegal, so there's that.

The Need is already bad to begin with in my opinion, but charging even a dollar for the app is the nail in the coffin. Your best bet for an app like this is to run Google AdSense, and then charge a monthly or one-time fee to remove adds as an option.

Thanks for your feedback. Yeah that's why I ask - sometimes these things sound good, and then you hear some outside opinions and it kind of helps you determine what to spend time on.

Interesting monetization scheme idea at the end - 100% you're right about the illegal thing, although I do think that that's if you're taking pictures of people, not the location itself. I could be wrong, just that Google Maps does have a few bathroom locations w/ pictures.

 

[Michael Boroda]

Neat idea!
However, the only way I could see it working would be creating the service then licensing the service/data to other apps/ brands. This way, you’d be able to leverage their growth as a means of getting traffic, while you could focus on improving the product.

Thanks for the idea! Do you have any experience with licensing? I'm reading your comment, and it's making me wonder whether or not the service needs to be restricted to just restrooms, or whether it can be any sort of data that's valuable to a brand (i.e. an app that leverages people's engagement to get them to post all sorts of data, and rewards them with games, badges, etc.).

 

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[heavy_industry]

We will need to discuss with the fastlane app idea specialist @Andy Black

 

[Andy Black]

Hello,

Wanted to get some outside opinions on an app idea - a crowdsourced public washroom review aggregator / GPS locater that incentivizes users to leave restroom reviews / ratings as well as add new restroom locations, cleanliness ratings, and pics to the app by incorporating points, badges, and the ability to unlock games whenever you complete one of these tasks (not unlike Foursquare).

There are some existing restroom locater apps already, and they have few downloads / don’t have the best benefits in my opinion (i.e. illegitimate bathroom locations, lack of pictures, lack of games or entertainment / boring, no cleanliness ratings / reviews, very basic and unfriendly U.I.). Wanted to get an outside opinion on whether you think there’s an actual need to find and rate public washrooms in order to incentivize businesses to maintain better cleanliness (particularly for free washrooms, or for travellers who don’t know the area too well). Would anyone actually pay for this, even if it’s only $1-$2? Think of it almost as a Yelp for public restrooms.

Do people already pay for anything that indicates they'd pay for your solution?

 

[Michael Boroda]

Do people already pay for anything that indicates they'd pay for your solution?

Yes, there is an app that locates washrooms that has both a paid and free version. Paid app has no ads. I'm not quite sure how much they make per month.

 

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[Michael Boroda]

We will need to discuss with the fastlane app idea specialist @Andy Black

@Andy Black feel free to contribute!

 

[heavy_industry]

@Andy Black feel free to contribute!

Yes, I really think he should comment on this thread!

Oh wait...

Do people already pay for anything that indicates they'd pay for your solution?

 

[Andy Black]

@Andy Black feel free to contribute!

It's a bit of an inside joke. As a digital marketing consultant I sometimes get people asking to discuss their "idea for an app". It's never ended well.

Better to test your idea. See if there's anyone buying something similar, or if you can make a sale.

 

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[Hurks2048]

Thanks for the idea! Do you have any experience with licensing? I'm reading your comment, and it's making me wonder whether or not the service needs to be restricted to just restrooms, or whether it can be any sort of data that's valuable to a brand (i.e. an app that leverages people's engagement to get them to post all sorts of data, and rewards them with games, badges, etc.).

Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with licensing, but you’re right. Perhaps you could collect info about people’s preferences when it comes to travel, and provide it to sites like trip advisor? Just putting ideas out there.

 

[TeeJay_]

Is this something that people want? For the already existing similar apps, how are their reviews and how many download do they have? My gut feeling tells me that most people know how to spot a place with a washroom without the need of a map (mall, fast food, coffee chain, gas station, etc.).

A good solution starts with a problem that people want it to be solved to a point where they would even pay for it (or it's so popular that advertisement generates the income).

 

[Michael Boroda]

Is this something that people want? For the already existing similar apps, how are their reviews and how many download do they have? My gut feeling tells me that most people know how to spot a place with a washroom without the need of a map (mall, fast food, coffee chain, gas station, etc.).

A good solution starts with a problem that people want it to be solved to a point where they would even pay for it (or it's so popular that advertisement generates the income).

Yeah I agree, I think I'm going to move on from this one.

 

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