Inspiration
When we were trying to connect with other professionals and seek out career mentorship, the main problem was that LinkedIn seemed too formal and structured of a platform to be able to strike up a genuine conversation with a potential mentor. It can often be intimidating to reach out to others on a platform such as LinkedIn, and when we do so, it is often without the expectation of a response.
What it does
Our app is a social platform that allows you to connect with professionals globally. Each person's profile will pop up individually on your screen, and you will have the option to swipe right (and message them) or move on to the next person, in a similar fashion to apps such as Hinge and Tinder. The profiles will be different than the ones you see on LinkedIn because they will not only include professional experiences but also individualized prompts (such as "in 2023, my goal is to..."), as well as a section for hobbies. The messaging platform is created to be more casual and easier for people to strike up a conversation regarding career growth, finding a mentor/cofounder, or simply connecting with other people. Users can also star profiles they find interesting, so they can revisit them for a later conversation.
How we built it
This app was designed using Figma, and the front end was built using Swift on Xcode. View Figma here: https://www.figma.com/file/oZnUEX7QtnkZLStdyPc7Zc/HackSC?node-id=22%3A61
Challenges we ran into
Since all members of our team had never used Swift before, it was a challenge to learn the language from scratch. Adjusting the padding, sizing, etc., was a very tedious process. Additionally, we found it difficult to build the swiping feature that apps such as Hinge and Tinder are known for. It was also a bit hard to combine all the different app pages together toward the end.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
After taking a pretty intensive Intro to Swift course, we were all able to code front-end designs that were very close to the original designs that we had pictured and sketched out on Figma. We found ways to work around the challenge we faced with the swiping feature, by having "yes" and "no" buttons that would direct you to different profiles accordingly. We were also able to code functional pages and figure out how to combine all the pages together seamlessly.
What we learned
We all became very comfortable with using the language Swift at the end. We learned how to work as a team to ideate, brainstorm designs, code individual pages, and ultimately put them all together. This project really helped us get a better understanding of the process of app development, especially on the front-end side, as well as figuring out how every page within an app interacts with each other.
What's next for Coffee Chat
We want to further develop the backend side, such as including authentication for users through Firebase. We also want to begin adding additional features such as a page where you can see your starred profiles, as well as a page where you can swipe left or right on job applications and apply with one click of a button.
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