Treat Map 2020

Covid-19 ruined Halloween (okay, and everything else), but let’s look at this holiday specifically.

For years, Nextdoor had been known for its Treat Map, which showed neighbors which homes were offering candy nearby so they could plan their trick-or-treating route.

But in October 2020, America was eight months into Covid lockdowns, and we had just started to hit some of our highest infection spikes. Trick-or-treating was cancelled.

We needed to figure out a way to make the Treat Map useful and fun for a Halloween with no trick-or-treating.

Virtual fun became our goal. We partnered with Party City to bring a virtual-reality ghost hunt to the app, in addition to letting people mark their haunted home decor for distanced viewing.

Our ability to pivot and get creative in stressful, scary times won us a Platinum Muse Award for our innovation on the Treat Map.