In a world where online dating has become an epidemic, CG's team of web and design creatives has stepped in to save singletons from their awkward dates.
Showcasing their skills at the annual PubHack event in Portsmouth at the end of last year the team created Date Escape, a web app complete with marketing strategy and social media, all while sitting in a pub for 10 hours.
PubHack sees creatives, developers and other top agency talent meet to compete for coveted awards by responding to a brief, which this year was ‘awkward situations’.
The CG team got their thinking hats on to create an app to save people from awkward situations. Before long, Date Escape was born.
The ingenious app provides users with the perfect escape route from awful dates. Once the panic button is pressed, the app calls the user and texts their phone giving increasingly alarming excuses to leave, ranging from minor housemate emergencies and police warnings through to simulated house fires.
Phil Bennett, web team lead at Carswell Gould, said:
“Working in a such a high-pressure, time-sensitive environment really focuses you on what needs to be delivered. It didn’t hurt that we took a team of experts with a huge array of skills, allowing us to beat off some tough competition from local competitors. It's a great example of what can be achieved with some creative thinking and 10 hours in a pub.“
Disclaimer: This project is non-commercial and purely a proof of concept built for fun.
The technology: The app was developed using the Sencha Touch Javascript framework. This enabled the team to quickly prototype usable layouts during the day that were then styled up with the project creative and design using CSS. The app also links into the Twitter API to provide the users avatar image and the Twillio for SMS and phone call functionality.
When the dust had settled and all the entries were in, the CG team walked away with an award for 'Best Design' and was a runner up for ‘Best Overall Project’.
Since PubHack Date Escape has received coverage in local and national media, it has been revamped for release before Valentine's Day.
