Inspiration
We were inspired by our own experience with and passion for creating a more sustainable planet, and we wanted to build a functioning way to track our progress while keeping it fun for other people to encourage them to do the same.
What it does
EcoPet is an easy way to track your own sustainability efforts, and it boasts many different features that can keep you accountable! We encourage our users to submit evidence of their task completion so that in a year, they can look back at all of their sustainability progress. For each task you complete, you earn experience that goes towards leveling up your EcoPet, which can unlock many new items and features to do with your EcoPet! There is also a leaderboard that showcases the users who have gained the most experience, creating a competitive system where you can challenge your friends to see who can help the environment the most.
How we built it
First, we designed the mobile app using Figma, which was straightforward as we already had an idea in mind of how it would look. Then we programmed the app using React Native and Expo, which utilizes TypeScript and JavaScript. Expo is used to integrate React Native was mainly used for front-end, although it was paired with back-end portions as well. For authentication, we used AuthContext and React Native’s async storage to keep track of username/password pairings.
Challenges we ran into
We had difficulty setting up React Native and working with TypeScript. We have only previously worked with React, so it was a new experience using React Native. It was also our first time using TypeScript, and there was a lot to learn before we could begin working on our project.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are really proud of getting over the hurdle of the learning curve of React Native and working with Expo. We’re proud of the design and idea we came up with for EcoPet, and we pulled through the challenges and created an app we are really proud of. We are also proud of learning how to integrate authentication, which is something we wanted to learn how to do.
What we learned
We learned the basics of Expo and React Native and how to integrate JavaScript and basic HTML formatting into the framework. We also learned how to integrate authentication using AuthContext and React Native’s async storage.
What's next for EcoPet
We plan to add a community event page where the user can see what sustainable community events are going on in their area, such as volunteer events like picking up trash in the neighborhood, helping out with a shared community garden, or donating to nature conservatory parks. We plan to add features that allow you to work with your network of friends to complete shared goals together, to encourage users to go out and be more sustainable with a community. We also want to add more pets and items in the future, so that it is even more customizable to the user’s liking.
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