Fewer chore disputes with students' new app

How much time do you spend arguing about who does more in your student flat or at home? Now those disputes could be over – if you want them to be.

KTH students Victor Fredrikson, Marcus Påhlman, and Elias Floreteng have developed the app Accord, which tracks household chores. The idea came a year ago when Fredrikson was living at home and his father grew tired of reminding him to do the laundry. His father suggested that Fredrikson, a programmer, create an app to stop him from having to nag.

Turning chores into rewards

Fredrikson teamed up with his fellow students Påhlman and Floreteng, and together they developed a prototype. Now the completed app is ready.

“The app helps families and housemates visualise household work and get it done by gamifying chores and turning them into rewards,” Fredrikson says.

Fredrikson says Accord’s streak function can transform household work into a competition. A streak is achieved by using the app for several consecutive days. Accord offers a reward, such as a discount on products or services, when someone uses the app three days in a row. In this way, those doing chores benefit in more ways than one. This, Fredrikson says, is intended to maintain continuity in household work.

Making it easier to talk

But how does the team behind the app know it works? How do they account for more nuanced housework like ensuring children have clothes for nursery or providing comfort when they’re upset? These are tasks that go beyond washing dishes but are vital for a well-functioning home. “Very good questions,” Fredrikson admits.

“One thing we want to achieve is making it clear who is doing what at home. That makes it easier to talk about housework and create a more equal distribution of tasks. Studies show that when everyone helps out equally, everyone feels better. And when people feel better, they also become better at caring for others,” Fredrikson says.

Works for academic housework

But could this app also work for what’s called academic housework? In other words, tasks at a university institution that need to be done but often carry little merit and low status.

“Yes, absolutely. Both there and in company kitchens. We’ve also had positive reactions from student housing companies. They have a hard time motivating students to clean and organise shared kitchens and laundry rooms,” Fredrikson says.

Text: Peter Asplund

Fact Box

• KTH Innovation has supported the students since February 2023, and in November 2023, Accord joined the pre-incubator program.
• The app, called Accord just like the company, is a group organising app for families, turning chores into rewards. There are similar apps on the market, but the student team believes theirs is better because it’s simple to use. In a recent interview with news paper Mitt I, the students said they stand out by providing users with statistics on who does what and how much.
• Accord is now available on both iPhones and Android devices. The final version follows a beta version used by around 50 households to help the student team fine-tune the app.
• Victor Fredrikson and Marcus Påhlman study media technology at KTH, while Elias Floreteng is studying computer engineering.