Oakville teens develop app to encourage local exploration
Three Oakville teens are developing an app designed to help young people discover local businesses and public spaces. Grade 12 students Hansen Lou and Richie Zheng from Oakville Trafalgar High School and Nathan Jia from Iroquois Ridge High School are currently developing an app named Puddle.
“Puddle is a discovery app for teens to discover local or niche places,” said Lou. “When I first came to Canada there was a lot of big locations that people went to, but then those places got boring.”
The founders hope to get young people off social media and highlight local and small businesses that otherwise would be unknown to attract customers. A Statistics Canada study following a group of youth in 2019 and 2023 found that 37 per cent of Canadian youth exceeded the recommended screen time of two to three hours a day. Youth who followed the recommended screen time had higher reports of good mental health and life satisfaction, lower reports of body image issues, and were twice as likely to meet physical activity guidelines – something Puddle will encourage through its design.
Puddle takes inspiration from X (formerly known as Twitter), Tinder and Messages. The feed feature will be like X, but users must tag a location every time they post content. “It encourages you to go outside and explore around you,” said Zheng. The app includes a messaging feature that lets users send locations to one another, and users can choose places they want to visit by “swiping left or right” on potential spots to go to, a feature that draws inspiration from Tinder. “Instead of people you swipe places,” said Lou.
When users first download Puddle, they are asked a series of questions about the spots they’re looking for and the people they’re hoping to meet. Then, the app will recommend local places for users to visit, using a database of over 30 million locations. Puddle is also available as a website. Both the website and app are free to access. The founders say there will not be ads, as they are trying to operate as a non-profit organization.
“Currently we are mainly focused on teens, but expanding it is our next goal,” said Lou. Lou, Zheng and Jia met at a hackathon, and as they were searching for a restaurant to eat, they realized how tedious it was to search through every Google Maps recommendation and then scroll through every restaurant’s website. “We wanted a more fluid way for that to happen,” said Zheng. “Maps show you where the locations are, but Puddle will personalize the locations to where you want to go, which will help you discover more parks and more restaurants”.
Lou handles the computer and technical sides, whereas Zheng focuses on design, and Jia works on the business end of Puddle. “We all have different skill sets,” said Jia, “It’s been really good working together.
Our different skill sets make solutions easier.” The first version of Puddle, Puddle 1.0, was under maintenance at the time of the interview. “The app is done, but we are trying to reduce user latency,” said Lou. Since Puddle will be accessible as a website and a mobile app, user interface changes are being made to fit every user’s device. “The technical side has been a little bit of a challenge,” said Jia.
The three agreed that learning new coding software while balancing the demands of their final year of high school has been a challenge. However, the trio resolved to create the app before they graduate and split up to attend separate post-secondary institutions.
The founders expect to launch the updated version by November. To visit the Puddle website, go to https://puddle.you/
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