Tufts Dash

The Big Idea

“All of Tufts at a glance”

Year after year, Tufts students are increasingly relying on their smartphones to check their dining hall’s menu, look up the Joey’s schedule, and find Tufts-based events to attend. The problem is that doing so is a big pain using a smartphone’s web browser – particularly since Tufts’ sites aren’t mobile optimized.

It makes sense, then, for an app to exist that congregates all of the Tufts-related information a student could need in one interface.

That app should be customizable, of course, because no two students are interested in the same things. It should also be modular, making it easy for future generations of student developers to pick up and maintain.

We’re currently building that app, and we think we’ve come up with an interface that sets it far ahead of previous efforts in terms of usability, learnability, and usefulness.

We’re calling it Tufts Dash, and this is how we’re making it.

The Problem

A lot of useful information about Tufts is spread across the web, but accessing that information on a smartphone is a pain. Previously-created apps like iJumbo, Joey Tracker and TuftsLife (a web app) were useful when they first came out, but have begun to age, and certain components of those apps don’t work at all anymore.

The Goal

We wanted to combine the best aspects of Tufts’ old apps into one app that would provide quick, at-a-glance information about everything a Tufts student would need to know. We also wanted to come up with a new way of presenting information about Tufts’ events, sports, dining options, building locations, and Joey schedule that was immediately useful, easily customizable, and easy for future developers to maintain after we graduate.