Inspiration
The inspiration for this project was the current state that our community is in. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted an abundance of lives world-wide. Many people have lacked the basic necessities they need at home, in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Each individual deserves to be able to have access to the resources that they need, seeing people struggle as a result of their situation, can be a tough sight. Therefore, to help make a change in someone's life, Corona Connect was designed. It helps fill the void of the lack of preparation that our country faced going into the pandemic. This hackathon got us thinking more about this situation, and we believed it was a perfect opportunity to develop our thoughts.
What it does
This online platform is able to fill the institutional void, that our system is currently facing. It provides an user-friendly website, that is easy to navigate. The home page provides general information about what we do. The footer provides general organization information, a site map, contact information and our social media. Next, the donate page, provides potential donors with the information (e.g. specification, requirements, etc.) regarding the resources that we are requesting. Scrolling down onto the page, a button is provided that is linked to a form. A donor fills the form out providing the information regarding what resources they are able to donate, and how much. Once the form is submitted, they receive a message saying that our team will shortly contact (either by phone or email), in order to set-up a contact-less pick up for the resources. Furthermore, the request page, provides general information about what a user can request and once again, by scrolling down and pressing the "request here" button, the user is redirected to a form in which they are able to submit their request (what resources they need). Once this is completed they receive a message letting them know that one of our staff members will contact them shortly to arrange contact-less delivery. Additionally, the FAQs page contains a list of general questions that users may have, in order to make their experience as easy and comfortable as possible. Lastly, the about-us page is there for the users to be familiarized with those who run the organization (us), once again trying to make them more comfortable about their experiences. Corona Connect is able to provide those with the means to donate, a safe place to do so, and those who need resources, a safe place to request so.
How we built it
We built our site using the languages html and .css. Additionally, the IDE that we used in order to develop this site was Visual Studio Code. We were then able to host it locally, in order to make our demo video, and ensure that our design was functional and user-friendly.
Challenges we ran into
We faced two main challenges in this hackathon. We had never been to a hackathon, so we weren't familiar with any interactive IDEs. We were only familiar with Pycharm (We used it with Python previously), which was definitely not interactive. On top of that, our idea circulated around web development, which neither of us were familiar with. Fortunately, there was a web development workshop, which we attended. It broke everything down to the basics, and helped us understand how the languages work. After the workshop, we planned out how we wanted each 'page' to look like (Its features). The workshop used an IDE called Glitch, which wasn't optimal for what we wanted to create, so we weren't sure which IDE to use. An additional criteria for the IDE would be interactivity, meaning that it would allow both of us to code at the same time. We downloaded over 4 different IDEs in hope to find the best one. At one point, we even contemplating giving up, because we couldn't find a platform. Thankfully, we contacted a mentor through the Discord portal, and we were directed towards an IDE called VSCode, which worked perfectly. Once that was in session, we slowly started googling techniques to bring our vision to life. It took us about 4-5 hours to build our landing page, but by that time, we were comfortable with the languages, and we quickly finished the rest of the pages as well.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
The accomplishments that we are proud of are firstly, getting through and completing our first hackathon ever. At the start of the hackathon, we were very discouraged and confused yet, as we got into it and with the help of the mentors answering any questions we had we were able to get motivated. Prior to this hackathon, we were only somewhat familiar with Python. We had never used HTML, or CSS. When we came up with this idea, at first we were a little skeptical, as we didn't know how HTML or CSS. We attended a web development workshop, which helped us gain confidence in those languages. By the end of the night (we should be saying morning actually), we were FLYING through the code. This learning experience created two main accomplishments in my eyes; 1- we learned how to code in HTML and CSS, and 2- we built a functional web-based platform, that can ACTUALLY be used, and make a difference, if we wanted it to. The idea behind the CoronaConnection is completely realistic, and we created the project after identifying an issue. In the near future, we may decide to facilitate the transactions between donors and those in need. At this point, I'm super proud of the skills we've learned, the opportunities we've identified, our teamwork, and of course, our somewhat aesthetic final product :)
What we learned
I believe our main lesson from this hackathon was to never give up. We persisted at our project, and didn't let the fact that this was our first hackathon, discourage us to work hard to complete the project fully. Furthermore, we also learned 2 completely knew languages to us, that we had basically no experience with. These languages will also be able to help us in the future, for future projects that we plan to complete. We learned to not limit ourselves, and also to not let anything hold us back (as we did not let the "language barriers" hold us back). We believe this hackathon will be an extremely memorable experience for us, and was truly a teachable moment.
What's next for Corona Connect
Currently, this idea that was brainstormed as a hackathon project idea, is simply that just an idea with a website that is locally hosted. We believe that the best option for Corona Connect going forward, is to figure out how to live launch the website, so that we can actually start helping people. Additionally, another possibility would be for us to continue developing the site in a way where we can remove the third party communication (us; Corona Connect). By this, we mean that Corona Connect could be a platform where donors, and able to be matched directly to recipients in need who are local to their neighborhood. We believe that Corona Connect will truly be able to make a difference in the lives of many.
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