Independent, 2021
Ether

A COVID-19 Help App
Collaboratated with :
Aakrity Madan, Diya Ibrahim, Gauri Nagpal
Artwork by Gauri Nagpal

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic in India, finding a hospital bed became a real struggle due to the lack of a central system to track availability. People were scrambling for information, and many turned to Instagram, sharing updates in their stories to help others. Seeing this, I decided to build a website that would serve as a centralized database for hospital bed availability. The idea was simple: make a place where the latest info about hospital beds could be easily updated and accessed by anyone in need. However, the project didn't take off as planned. One of the main reasons was timing. By the time the website was up and running, the practice of sharing updates on Instagram had already become widespread. People were used to searching for information there, and it was hard to shift them away from a platform they were already comfortable with. Another issue was motivation. When people posted updates on Instagram, it was linked to their personal profiles. This gave them a bit of recognition and appreciation within their community, acting as a reward for their efforts. My website couldn't offer this personal touch. Without a direct link to the contributors, there was less incentive for people to participate and share information. I did add a little downloadable thing people could use as an image, but this was too low of an incentive for folks. In the end, the website didn't achieve what I had hoped, but it was a learning experience on the importance of timing and understanding what drives people to share and engage with community projects.

Some of the instagram posts folks were making back then

A video of the app in action

The app is still live: