Travel Support App "Odekakekun" Press Release

“Odekakekun”, a travel support app provided by Mitsuki Corporation, is a web application that connects users of travel assistance services, helpers, and business operators who manage them.

I was helping as a developer, and on July 29th, there was a press release announcing that this app would be sold as a SaaS to other travel assistance service providers.

What is Travel Assistance (Doukouengo)

When you have a visual impairment, it becomes difficult to venture out to new places or when you need vision at your destination. For some people, going out alone is challenging due to various factors.

In such situations, you can use travel assistance services. By applying in advance, a sighted helper will come to pick you up at a designated location and provide visual support during travel.

Previous Challenges

Travel assistance services existed before the digital society emerged, so several challenges remain. These issues create inconvenience for users, helpers, and business operators who provide travel assistance services.

The most problematic issue is that many interactions are paper-based. First of all, having visually impaired people read text written on paper is completely unreasonable, and it also generates management costs. For business operators, as long as they continue paper-based interactions, it will be difficult to benefit from the increasingly convenient cloud accounting software.

I could probably write about this until it gets boring, so I won’t explain everything, but if these problems could be solved nicely, I think everyone involved would be happy.

Why I Became a Developer

There are various reasons like solving the problems mentioned above and digital transformation, but since this is my personal space, I’ll talk about my story.

Actually, I didn’t have a contract with a travel assistance service provider until 2024. The reason was that I thought it would be troublesome.

Here was my fantasy until last year: “Surely, I’d have to go somewhere to get something, then go to another place to talk to someone, then contract with a business operator, but before that I’d need to have an interview with someone from the business operator, and just when I think I’ve finally got a contract, every time I want to make a request, I’d have to call somewhere and say ‘excuse me’, only to be told ‘we can’t help until two weeks from now’, and I’d end up frustrated, right?”

The actual situation - I can’t say for sure since I haven’t compared multiple providers - but I think several of these points probably apply. Particularly, the convenience when making reservations directly affects motivation to use the service. The idea that it would be great if I could create something to address these issues, combined with good timing, led me to join the development team.

Main Features

Travel assistance users can make requests through PC or smartphone. The app is integrated with LINE, allowing password-free login using LINE-linked information.

Business operators can receive these requests and recruit available helpers for those time slots. There are various features here with thoughtful design to make it easier to assign optimal helpers.

Once a helper is assigned, users and helpers can message each other in real-time through the app. It’s a proper system where messages appear instantly if both parties have their screens open.

After the travel assistance is completed, the results can be viewed from the business operator’s management screen. At the end of the month, aggregated data can be generated and CSV files for external import can be output to enable smooth accounting processes. This reduces the operational burden as well.

What I’m Working On

Initially, I was working on accessibility-related aspects of the user interface bit by bit, but before I knew it, I was making changes everywhere and doing large-scale refactoring.

I created most of the external integrations with various services in the management screen.

Since there were no plans to provide services to multiple business operators in the early development phase, when we later decided to expand to multiple operators, I redesigned the data model and implemented RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) functionality. Moreover, I did this with virtually no downtime.

Recently, because I’ve been doing too many things and it’s becoming unmanageable, I’m getting help from a junior blind university student coder.

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