3rD spaces

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  UI brainstorming

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  readymag mock-up

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  custom cursor made in pixilart for readymag version

Inspiration

I live in Ireland where the cost of living is high, and one could argue that affordable culture is beginning to become inaccessible, particularly to young people. I believe that amidst the loneliness epidemic. Irish youth need help finding 3rd spaces. Third spaces, as defined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, are locations outside of home and work (first and second places) where people can socialize, relax, and build community. I want to create a search engine which allows people to find cheap or free cultural and community events in Ireland with minimal effort.

What it does

I wanted to build an easy-to-use searchable website. Where the search pulls results from specific websites I provide. Those websites form the data source for my search database. So, essentially, building a custom search engine to find out about cultural events in Ireland. Search results are displayed in a google search format as hyperlinks to website articles from database.

How we built it

Two versions built using emergent AI, scraping a manually inputted database of websites (containing information about exhibitions, theatre performances, cafe openings etc. in Ireland). HTML and JavaScript as building blocks for front-end and CSS for styling. Python for backend. Hosted on Github.

Challenges we ran into

Initially I wanted to build the entire project from scratch but due to time constraints was limited by what I could do. I attempted to use both Framer and readymag before realising I would run out of time. Ideally I would have used Figma to make individual elements and Framer or readymag for UI. For the prototype the search location is automatically set to Dublin, Ireland to reduce the need for a larger database and to simplify testing. In later versions I would like users to be able to search for events nationwide and to add a filter function by target county.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Participating in my first hackathon!

What we learned

Time management is key. Pick one method and stick with it.

What's next for 3rD spaces

There is a lot I would like to change including using a java back-end, removing the stats display section, changing UI text to black besides header font in 3D chrome, creating a larger database to pull from and creating a liminal space moving image in 3D of an empty field with a door leading to ever-changing little words to showcase endless opportunities on the home page. I would probably end up starting from scratch to make a fully functional website and add a filter-by-county feature.

Built With

• canva
• css
• framer
• javascript
• pixilart
• python
• readymag