WePlan

The COVID-19 lockdown forced everyone into remote collaboration, but existing tools weren't designed for quick, ad-hoc student projects. Slack was overkill. Google Docs was too unstructured. Discord was just chat.

The real problem showed up in my group project: three people independently created the same PowerPoint slides because we had no shared task list. Someone was unreachable during a deadline because their contact info was buried in a week-old Discord message. A critical file got lost in chat history.

These weren't complex problems requiring sophisticated solutions. They were simple coordination failures that needed simple tools. But those tools didn't exist - or at least, we couldn't find them. So I built WePlan during CougarHacks as my first-ever hackathon project.

WePlan has exactly three features. Not four, not ten - three.

1. Task Board: A shared to-do list where team members can see all tasks and claim ownership. If someone's working on slides, everyone knows. No more duplicate work. Just clear assignment and visibility.

2. Contact Hub: Centralized contact information for every team member. Phone, email, Discord - whatever you need to reach someone urgently. No more digging through chat history to find someone's number during a deadline crunch.

3. Resource Library: Shared links and files organized by task. The Google Drive link lives here. The research articles live here. The design mockups live here. One place, accessible to everyone, no hunting through message history.

The constraint was intentional: solve three problems exceptionally well rather than ten problems poorly. The UI reflects this - clean, obvious, zero learning curve.

Built in pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript during a 48-hour hackathon. No frameworks, no build tools, no complexity. This was by design - I wanted to focus on solving user problems rather than wrestling with technology.

The interface prioritizes speed over aesthetics. Large buttons, high contrast, clear labels. If you can't figure out how to use WePlan in 10 seconds, I failed. This design philosophy came from watching teammates struggle with "enterprise collaboration tools" that required documentation to understand.

Key Technical Decisions:
Client-side only - no backend complexity to deploy
Local storage for data persistence
Minimal dependencies for reliability
Mobile-responsive from day one (everyone was on laptops and phones during lockdown)

The simplicity allowed rapid iteration during the hackathon. I could test features with teammates and immediately implement feedback without breaking a complex architecture.

CougarHacks 2nd Prize - Utility Category

WePlan won 2nd place at UIUC's CougarHacks, my first hackathon award. The judges appreciated how the project addressed a real, immediate need with an appropriately scoped solution. No feature bloat, no unnecessary complexity - just three tools that actually helped teams coordinate.

Lessons That Carried Forward:

This project taught me more about product design than any subsequent project:

Solve your own problems - The best projects come from personal frustration, not brainstormed ideas
Constraints breed creativity - Limiting scope to three features forced ruthless prioritization
Simple beats complex - A basic tool people actually use beats a sophisticated tool they abandon
Speed matters - During crises, usability trumps features

Every subsequent project - from PioneerFi to Reaper - followed these principles. WePlan proved that technical sophistication matters less than solving real problems effectively.