Inspiration
This has come up here and there in our conversation. We often talk about the automatic door at the UB entrance and how it’s inconsistent that the door outside has an automatic button but the one inside does not, while such features are meant to accommodate those in need. From there, we start to notice more and more accessibility features at DePauw that do not seem to make sense or are too hidden away.
What it does
DeFind aims to help navigate the available accessibility features at DePauw. The website’s goal is to provide a comprehensive map of DePauw’s accessibility options. DeFind shows markers for three key amenities: elevators, ramps, and automatic doors. Each marker represents the relative location of the feature in the building and comes with a brief description of the feature and possibly pictures.
How we built it
We built it with ReactJS, React Bootstrap for the front end, Firebase for the database, and Google Maps API for the most important thing – the map.
Challenges we ran into
The most challenging thing was probably learning the technology. Except for HTML and CSS, all three members of our team are unfamiliar with at least one of the technologies we used. The shortage of time also did not help. The weeks the Hackathon fell on were some of our very very busy weeks, so juggling learning new technologies, building a full-stack project and our normal workload was indeed very challenging.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re proud to actually get the website to work! It was quite confusing and the end seemed out of reach at first, but we did get a somewhat functional version of it to work. We’re also proud to make a product that could be helpful for our community and somewhat offset the challenges that might arise in being on this campus.
What we learned
So much. It was our first experience working on a full-stack project and seeing the project go from ideation to completion with someone else, so it was very different from working alone. We got to learn from each other and learn from the process a lot. Not only did we learn tons of technical skills, but also soft skills like communicating technical information with each other, and resolving conflicts not just in Git but in real life.
What's next for DeFind
We had tons of ideas at first when we were in the ideating stage. However, we had to choose what was realistic for the timeline and what we could actually do. Since we’re all very enthusiastic about this project and this is something that could really make a positive impact on the DePauw community, we might continue collaborating to finish all the ideas we had in the beginning. Some of the features that we want to add later:
- Update the Resources tab with links to other organizations that support the community
- In the Map of each building, if the users click on the icons of accessibility types, the page will have a drop-down to show the list of available accessibility features. If the users click on the item on the list it should also lead to the same item on the map.
- Right now, the map display is not very smooth, so we hope to improve that.
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