fish.bowl

Inspiration

There are several initiatives within Seattle that centralize their focus towards providing houseless populations with proper necessities, one necessity primary being access to clean water. Nonprofits such as the Seattle Homeless Outreach and Mary's Place dedicate their time towards providing drinking water to the unhoused. These organizations are able to do this via outreach events, in which volunteers assist within their events.

While researching the initiatives and nonprofits within Seattle currently, one aspect became very prevalent: None of these organizations have any form of technology to support their cause and expand their outreach. We were inspired by the idea that water should be accessible to everyone, everywhere. Living in Seattle, we recognize how difficult it actually is to find free, clean drinking water — especially for unhoused communities, people working outdoors, and even everyday residents during heatwaves. Seeing broken fountains, a lack of clear resources, and outdated apps motivated us to create a solution that could help bridge this critical gap.

After contextualizing the issue, understanding where current solutions lacked, and providing a competitive analysis on existing software, we developed our project fish.bowl.

Our platform had accessibility in mind during the design and functionality process catered for being mobile-friendly. Fish.bowl is here to serve eco-conscious users as well as provide for vulnerable populations who need it the most.

What it does

Fish.bowl is a web app which maps free, reliable, and accurate water sources within Seattle. Fish.bowl shows public water fountains, business which opt in to provide free water services and refills, and community centers people can utilize to access clean water without having to pay.

Users have the option to pin certain locations, recommend and support numerous water fountain locations and water services, as well as provide businesses to opt in to provide free water services. Utilizing the Google Maps API, we were able to create our own map feature which allows for these interactive features of adding, saving, and locating water services with the Seattle area.

Incorporating AI within our project, we asses the input data we received and chose to utilize computer vision to asses whether or not the data was accurate and reliable. This would be as a way to see if a certain business still provides free way, or if a fountain within a certain street is still functional. Through all these features, fish.bowl provides a solid foundation for providing local areas in Seattle with the means to easily locate water services without having to pay unnecessary costs.

How we built it

We visualized our front-end development using Figma, and created our code implementation using CSS and TypeScript with a React framework. We used Next.JS routes for the get function to fetch data from the postgressql supabase and organize it in json format. We implemented the google API map with custom markers tailored toward fountain, toilet, or outlet. Lastly, we used google auth0 to implement google login from the client-side and store to supabase SQL database.

Challenges we ran into

When using public data to support our map feature, it was evident that some of the data we were accessing when it came to certain fountain locations were outdated or incomplete. To alleviate this issue, we decided to utilize AI and aspects of computer visions to allow us to assess the reliability of the water services being recommended within the website. This process allowed for a simplified and streamlined version to manage our input data while also straying away from data that could make our map unreliable and chaotic.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

There are several accomplishments we are proud. Most of the members within our team were very new to Figma, so it was a learning curve trying to understand the basic software functions to develop our design prototype. In the end, we were able to flesh-out different design choice for the front end of our finished executable project. Another accomplishment we are proud of is our use of integrating AI. Using computer vision to cut down on the manual labor needed to assess all the user recommended fountains and services was a great way to aid our gap of knowledge.

Within a project such as this, as well as already existing apps, many users frequently express the need for newly updated information due to their data being inaccurate. Overall, we are very content on how we chose to tackle this certain issue. We are very happy with the idea we tackled as a group and it was very interesting researching our project and seeing how we could create a positive impact within our local Seattle communities!

What we learned

Technology isn't enough- it's especially important to understand your target demographic, the issue at hand, and where you can enhance existing technology to create plausible change. Our team learned the value of creating within this space of technology as we delved within our research. We found it particularly interesting to read about the different initiative within Seattle and how we can utilize technology to support their causes! Community-driven solutions are especially powerful, and the more people who continue to use fish.bowl, the stronger it will become!

What's next for fish.bowl

As a group, we would like to implement, enhance, and create the best version of fish.bowl! We hope to include a feature which allows for crowdsourcing updates, promoting a lightweight verification system for those who are recommending different fountains or locations. In the future, our group hopes to reach our to local businesses, nonprofits, and city organizations to expand our reach within Washington to support more remote and local areas as well as expand our network of free water systems.

Our group would also really like to look into our accessibility improvements, such as adding multilingual support, low-data versions of our map, and even more detailed information for those with disabilities (e.g wheelchair access and business hours). We cannot wait to see how fish.bowl is able to transform our communities.