The idea came collectively when brainstorming ideas to create a sustainable app that would encourage the reduction of waste, be user-friendly, engaging and provide a practical and efficient solution to an everyday problem. We gravitated towards the idea of a book exchange app since books are an invaluable commodity that should be available to everybody, including individuals with little or no income. Therefore, we decided to create an app that would provide users with an alternative choice that would be just as convenient, yet much more sustainable. Recycle books with Readcycle and let’s tackle climate change together.

Firestore was a sensible choice for our database because it provided the flexible noSQL database we wanted for the project, as well as user authorisation tools. We chose React Native and Expo because its in-built features provided everything we needed for this app, including a slick and responsive user-interface and cross-platform compatibility. This allowed us to focus on building a dynamic app that was functional, feature-rich, and aesthetically engaging. We used React Navigation for routing and navigation as it was easy to implement, provided customisable components, animation, and gestures that were consistent across platforms, and allowed us to pass data across routes more efficiently.