Inspiration
With the onset of COVID-19, it is harder for people to do everyday tasks such as going to the grocery store, going outdoors to exercise, and going to restaurants. We wanted to create an iOS application that allowed people to see areas of high population density so they could make more informed decisions on which locations are safer to visit. With the privacy concerns currently facing contact-tracing apps, we wanted to allow users to have the option of keeping a private log of their location history. We think that by targeting population density and contact-tracing with features of our app, we can help the community reduce the number of COVID-19 cases.
What it does
Our application has two modes--Guest and Logged-in User--that allows users to choose whether or not they want to create an account with our application. For Logged-in users, our application allows them to mark their location, view a population density map (created from data from other users who have marked their locations), and view a personal history of locations the user has visited in the past 14-days. If the user chooses Guest mode, they can only view a population density map made up of location data from Logged-in Users who have marked their location.
How we built it
We used Xcode and Swift to create our application. We used the storyboard feature to create paths from screen to screen for our application and hard-coded some of the other features using Swift. We viewed various tutorials for MapKit, Swift, and Xcode as this was our first time using these tools.
Challenges we ran into
Since we learned a new software and coding language for this project, we had some trouble combining all the different aspects of our application. For example, we started off with using SwiftUI in Xcode but then switched to Storyboard so we could include MapKit. Lots of trial and error!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We learned a new language and participated in our first hackathon!
What we learned
We are proud we learned about iOS development and now know the basics of Swift and Xcode. We also gained experience working in a hackathon setting. We also learned how to include and work with APIs in iOS development.
What's next for COVID-19 Wise
Now that we have a working outline for our application, we want to improve it and make it more user-friendly. We want to create a heat map style population density map rather than using icons. We also want to create a pop-up for users to mark their location rather than having to switch tabs to accomplish this. Creating a help section for users to troubleshoot and technical difficulties would make the app more user-friendly as well. Lastly, we would like to tie in social media or a blog so that a larger community is formed to attract more users with a common goal in mind.
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