README.md

Homies: A Roommate Peacekeeping and Management Application

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II. Background of the Project

Basic Description of the Application

Homies is a mobile application designed to reduce conflict and improve coordination in shared living environments (roommates, families, housemates). The application streamlines shared living by centralizing the management of household responsibilities. Addressing the common conflicts that arise from misaligned expectations regarding chores, finances, and communication, the app provides a transparent digital ecosystem for roommates, families, and housemates. Homies eliminate the ambiguity of shared living. By digitizing the “roommate agreement”, it provides an objective record of who did what and who owes what, effectively lowering the cognitive load of household management.

Current System

• The current system of people in shared living spaces can be expounded into:

  • The “Verbal Contract” Mechanism
    • Most households operate on an initial, arbitrary verbal agreement that is made during the move-in phase. These rules are then stored in the memory of each person and therefore non-concrete as a physical or digital record

• The “Reactionary” Workflow

  • In a lot of households, chores are prompted through event-driven cues rather than schedule-driven cues, unless systemized initially. Tasks are performed only when the state of the environment becomes intolerable (ex. the trash bin overflowing, the dishes are full in the sink)
  • When the task is not assigned to a specific individual, every member assumes someone else will do the work.
  • This then leads the individual with the lowest tolerance for undone chores and “mess” to end up doing the majority of the work. If user A cannot stand a dirty sink while user B is still tolerant, user A will be punished by the system for having higher standards.

Decentralized Financial Ledger

• Expenses and bills inside a household are tracked via loose receipts, mental notes, or fragmented across multiple P2P payment applications such as GCash or Bank Transfer
• Financial data exists in silos, with User A potentially storing the electric bill while User B has the internet bill in their text messages, and shared grocery costs are on a paper receipt.

Single-Stream Communication

• Households typically use a single digital channel, such as a group chat channel (ex., Messenger, Discord) for all of their communication types. These include casual banter, urgent emergencies, bill reminders, complaints, and extraneous variables that normally pass through a group channel.
• Users are also required to switch into “Friend Mode” and “House Management Mode” within the same interface, which may be susceptible to miscommunication and misinterpretations. A serious request about washing the dishes can be misread as a personal attack on the person when included in casual conversations.

The Honor System of Accountability

• The system assumes that all agents are rational, honest and equally motivated to maintain the household. It relies on internal motivation rather than external validation
• In a current manual system, non-compliance has no immediate system-generated consequence, such as a notification or a prompt. The only conflict it has is interpersonal conflict, which most users actively avoid, and allows the system to persist.

Problems

• The primary cause of conflict in shared living environments, whether among family, roommates, or housemates, is the failure to clearly establish shared responsibilities. Data suggests that over 70% of individuals in shared rentals experience conflicts with cohabitants, often revolving around the division of chores, misaligned expectations, or insufficient communication (Wang, 2022).

• Surveys highlight that disputes over cleaning and housekeeping are the top complaint for more than 37% of renters. Additionally, most shared living arrangements face difficulties communicating about household chores and managing shared finances (Nelson, 2021). The significant interest expressed by a majority of shared-living participants in utilizing digital tools to manage shared documents and expenses indicates a clear demand for technology-based solutions that promote accountability, transparency, and cooperation among housemates (Anahid, 2023).

• The “Verbal Contract” Mechanism

  • Human memory is imperfect and fallible, and over time may devolve the agreement into something ambiguous, leading to potential conflicting recollections.
  • Standards are also subjective when non-concrete. One’s version of an accomplished task may differ from another person’s. This gap may create a compliance loop where one person believes that they have completed the task while the other person believes otherwise.

• The “Reactionary” Workflow

  • There is no log of execution or recorded proof. A user who might do the dishes 3 nights in a row will have no proof of contribution, potentially fuelling feelings of resentment that cannot be factually validated.

• Decentralized Financial Ledger

  • Consolidation requires significant effort, such as arranging and tracking through an Excel sheet and communicating with the other housemates.
  • The current system also relies on the “Push” notification system, wherein the creditor must actively nag the debtor. It may introduce or accentuate social tension; asking a friend for money feels confrontational, and debts are often uncollected or paid late to avoid issues.

• Single-Stream Communication

  • A main issue with the system is information burial, wherein important announcements such as critical system alerts, like due rent, are treated with the same visual priority as low-value data. Important data can easily be buried or scrolled past, even with the mechanism of pinned messages.

• The Honor System of Accountability

  • There is no verifiable way to determine if the chore is done by this person specifically. The user can claim that they have done the chore, but there are no methods of proof unless obvious and visibly verifiable.

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III. Proposed Solution

Functional Requirements

• Authentication
  • A User must be able to create an account.
  • A User must be able to log in with their email and password
• Household/Room management:
  • A User can create a room.
  • A User can join a room using the auto-generated room code.
  • A User can update household information (e.g. description and name)
  • A User can delete a household
  • A User can manage multiple household
  • A User can transfer ownership of a household to a member.
  • A User can leave a household
  • A User can remove a member from the household.
  • A User can have a member or owner role. Which limits the capabilities of residents from owners.
• Chore Management
  • A user can create a chore:
  • A user can assign a chore to one or more members.
  • A user can delete the chore.
  • A user can update the details of the chore.
  • A user can view previous chores (completed and past due)
  • A user can view the chore assigned to them.
  • A user can mark a chore complete
  • A user can set up automated chore rotation for each member of the household.
• Bill Tracking
  • A user can create a bill.
  • The user can assign the bill to one or more members.
  • The user can delete the bill.
  • The user can update the information of the bill.
  • The system split the payment between multiple users equally among the assigned members.
  • A user can mark their bill as paid by uploading the receipt as proof of their payment.
  • The user can only see bills they created or assigned to them.
• Shared Schedule and Events
  • A user can add the event to a shared calendar.
  • A user can assign members to an event.
  • A user can delete an event
  • A user can update the information of the event.
  • A user can schedule when they are going to use specific equipment, room, or any community property.
  • A user can view the events/schedule they are a recipient of.
• Notifications Feed
  • The user should receive notifications for:
    • Chores (Add, Update, Delete, Completed, Past Due)
    • Bills (Add, Update, and Delete, Paid, Past Due, and When someone pays their part)
    • Events (Add, Update, and Delete)
    • Announcements (Add, Update)
    • Reminders
    • Chores, 5 minutes before the due date.
    • Upcoming bills, a day before the due date.
    • New Members
• Announcement board
  • A user can post announcements
  • The user can update announcement details.
  • The user can delete announcement details.
  • A user can view recent announcements.
  • A user can view past announcements.

Non-functional Requirements

• Security
  • The user password must be encrypted
  • No two users can possess the same email.
• Portability and Compatibility
  • The user must be able to run the application on any mobile android devices
• Responsiveness & Performance
  • The user can view their list of chores, bills, events/schedule, and notifications with full visibility (no sudden cutoffs)
• Reliability
  • The user must be able to access the application services when needed and with system uptime of 99% during waking hours (6AM - 12AM)
  • The user must be able to accommodate at least 20 concurrent active users