Personal project

HikeMate

A two-platform product built solo: a React Native app for hikers and a Next.js dashboard for the people maintaining the trail data behind it.

Role: Design and development — solo
Year: 2024
Recognition: Gold Award — IVCCII 2025

React NativeExpoFirebaseNext.js

HikeMate home screen with a hiking stats summary, current weather for Kuang, and recommended trails — Home — hike stats, live weather, and trails picked for you

HikeMate trail list showing Taman Rimba Riang Loop Trail in Petaling Jaya with distance, elevation and an easy difficulty rating — Browse trails by distance, elevation and difficulty

HikeMate trail detail for Taman Rimba Riang Loop Trail showing elevation, distance, duration and a link to the trail map — Trail detail — the numbers that decide whether you go

HikeMate map showing the route of Denai Tiga Puteri via Scout's Trail, with options to save the map offline or start recording — Route map, saveable offline before you lose signal

HikeMate safety tips list covering route planning, essential gear, hydration and weather checks — Safety guidance, categorised and searchable

HikeMate emergency contacts screen listing Malaysian services including police, fire and rescue, and civil defence — Malaysian emergency numbers, one tap to call

HikeMate admin dashboard showing counts for users, trails, community posts and pending reports, with community activity and trail difficulty charts — Admin dashboard — the web side, built in Next.js

HikeMate admin trails management table listing trails with difficulty, distance, rating and options to edit, export GeoJSON or delete — Trail management, with GeoJSON export for the app's maps

The problem

Hiking apps aimed at a global audience handle Malaysian trails poorly. The features that matter most on an unfamiliar trail tend to sit behind a subscription, and trail suggestions rarely reflect what is actually nearby.

Offline navigation locked behind premium tiers — the exact moment you lose signal is the moment it stops working
Safety guidance either missing or too generic to act on
Trail recommendations not tailored to local conditions
Little room for hikers to share conditions with each other

What I built

A React Native app built with Expo for hikers, and a separate Next.js dashboard for managing the trail database and user accounts behind it. Both talk to the same Firebase backend, with Cloud Firestore holding trails, profiles and community posts.

The app covers the whole trip rather than just the walk: finding a trail beforehand, navigating and staying safe during, then logging and sharing it afterwards. Map data comes from OpenStreetMap and conditions from a weather API.

Where it stands

Built and tested end to end as a working product rather than a prototype. It is not published to the app stores — it was a self-initiated project to work through building for two platforms against one backend, and that is what it delivered.

HikeMate was awarded Gold at the International Virtual Competition of Creative & Innovative Idea (IVCCII), organised by MNNF Network, in May 2025.

Got something like this in mind? Let's talk.