Inspiration
When brainstorming ideas for our project, we made sure to take a people-centered approach. We considered challenges that are prevalent throughout our society and thought about what we could create in order to address said challenges. In other words, we wondered, “What could we create to encourage positive changes in individuals’ behaviors and habits?” In the early stages of our creation process, we suggested several ideas for things that we could create in order to help individuals identify a goal, develop a framework for the goal, and work towards the goal’s completion. We were particularly interested in finding a means by which we could integrate finance and computer science. We were inspired to create this project because we understood that although financial literacy is an important concept that has the potential to greatly impact the manner in which an individual lives, it is not always easily understandable or accessible. For example, we discussed how levels of financial literacy might vary among members of marginalized communities as well as how finance may be considered as somewhat intimidating to individuals who are less familiar with financial concepts or technical jargon. Therefore, we sought to provide a running list of resources to our users. Our goal is not to sell a product, but rather to provide credible resources that can help individuals increase their level of financial literacy.
What it does
Our project serves to provide users with relevant financial information in an accessible and manageable manner without a cost barrier. Our project informs individuals about the importance of financial literacy, provides them with useful resources for assessing and improving their levels of financial literacy, and suggests potential action steps for developing their understanding of financial literacy. We want useful financial information to be available to all, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, gender identity, and background. As a result, there is no fee to access our website. Additionally, we have provided a variety of incredibly helpful resources, many of which are free to access, including Khan Academy.
How we built it
The project was built using React, Node.js, and Visual Studio Code. The first step in the development of our project was a brainstorming session, during which we suggested ideas and considered how we could bring them to life. Following our brainstorming session, we created an outline and framework for the project’s completion. This helped us to identify our tasks and begin working toward them. Afterwards, we divided the workload and worked on our respective tasks, which included researching, coding, and creating the written elements of our project. It is important to note that the development of our project was not a completely linear process, as we had to pivot and restructure the project at several points.
Challenges we ran into
Some of the challenges we faced included the following: learning and navigating new platforms, determining how to translate our idea to code, dealing with technology and software issues, and addressing unexpected challenges.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of the accomplishments that we are most proud of is some of our members' abilities to learn and navigate a completely new program, React. Additionally, we were proud of the fact that we were able to come up with an idea and follow through with it when given significant creative freedom.
What we learned
Throughout the duration of the hackathon, we learned several lessons, including how to code a website using React, how to adapt to a variety of changes, how and when to pivot, as well as how to work and communicate with new people.
What's next for Financial Arsenal
In terms of what is next for our project, we hope to add to our survey by making it so that the survey can save user responses, provide personalized suggestions based upon their responses, and send the suggestions to users' preferred phone numbers or emails. Additionally, we have considered adding a virtual assistant named Wealfy the Elf, who will help users navigate to certain pages on our website. We also hope to add a blog section to our website and eventually partner with knowledgeable financial entities and advisors who will provide useful information via blog posts. Finally, one of our main goals would be to implement our further changes and deploy our final website so that it can be associated with the domain that we redeemed through porkbun.
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