Final Frontier

Inspiration

Final Frontier was inspired by our team’s mutual interest in the exploration of Mars and the future of space exploration. The website name “Final Frontier,” is a phrase drawn from the opening narration sequence of the show Star Trek, but we thought it was a creative way to describe the future of Mars space exploration. We also drew influence from simple, choose your own adventure games to create our interactive chat function.

What it does

Our major functions were creating a dynamic home page dedicated to providing informative articles and curated content on all things outer space. We also developed an informational chat feature allowing users to learn more about space travel and the exploration of Mars through interacting with Mr. Astronaut.

How we built it

We began by defining our information architecture, created sketches, and designed a prototype in Adobe XD. Next, we developed the navigation bar with routing between pages. After that, we started working on the logic and web design of every page.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we have faced was handling the hooks. During the implementation of the responsive chat with an astronaut we came across several problems, but they were fixed. Connecting Three.js was a bit of a challenge too, we had to use three js fiber which is built on top of the Three.js in order to render our objects in NEXT app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

During this project, we successfully 3D rendered Mars in Three.js using a mesh wrap rendering of Mars’ actual surface, created a decision tree with over 40 points of dialogue, and designed a brand identity and logo design within project time constraints.

What we learned

This was our team’s first ever Hackathon, so we learned a lot throughout the process. One thing that we learned is how to communicate productively throughout the whole design to development process. Our group consisted of one UX/UI designer and three developers, so we gained valuable skills by working across disciplines to create a dynamic final product.

What's next for Final Frontier

Moving forward, we would like to continue developing our 3D models and create a height map on the Mars model. We would also like to expand points of dialogue and website informational content to further educate users. Finally, we would like to increase overall website performance and speed.