Inspiration
Menstrual health and safety remains a pressing issue that is still overlooked in today's society. Despite the World Health Organization emphasizing that inadequate menstrual health management can lead to various health issues, period poverty remains to be prevalent. It is essential for women to have consistent access to these products, especially in emergency situations, yet, many public bathrooms do not adequately maintain their supply. Research indicates that only about 50% of public restrooms are adequately stocked with menstrual products, leaving many women without access when they need it most. Introducing FlowFind: an interactive web-app that allows the female audience to locate the nearest restroom stocked with sanitary pads and tampons, aimed to help women find the right products when they need them the most.
What it does
FlowFind tracks stock levels in real time, and serves as a navigation tool, making it a web-app women can always rely on to find the nearest bathroom that accommodates their menstrual needs.
How we built it
We used Django, along with CSS and HTML to build the front-end and back-end of FlowFind. We also utilized Google Maps APIs such as Directions, Geocode and Distance Matrix to provide an immersive navigation experience. To supplement our brand development, we also created a mock up on Figma, demonstrating the user flow.
Challenges we ran into
As it is our first time using Google Maps APIs, we faced challenges in using them in our code, however, with constant debugging and iterations, we were able to properly integrate it into the back-end of our program. In addition, most of our team was new to front-end development, so we had some difficulties making our front-end as seamless as we planned in our mock-up. Most of our team was also new to Django, and we had a steep learning curve trying to utilize it.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to have tried new things at the hackathon and we thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience! We managed to make a complete mock-up in Figma, implement Google Maps APIs to access location data, and implement a working front-end, despite our lack of experience and knowledge of these things going into the hackathon.
What we learned
We learned how to use Google Maps APIs, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and Django.
What's next for FlowFind
With more resources, we are hoping to build a reporting system for the stock levels of sanitary products and integrate the corporate side of this project. This potentially includes developing a pressure sensor/QR code system that can detect the stock level, and constantly update the levels on the web-app.
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