gather

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  Main event page

Inspiration

You've been invited to a potluck. Sounds fun! But wait... what to bring?? Are there dietary restrictions / allergies to be aware of? How much food should you make? Is somebody else also bringing a kale salad?

We recently hosted a trivia night where we had two Caesar salads, not enough wine, and one person wasn't able to eat everything because of their allergies! Not to mention, as hosts, we were stressed leading up to the event whether or not there would be enough food.

Though going out to eat may be a more convenient way to spend time with friends, we believe in the power of home-cooked, shared meals. It's less expensive, fosters connections, and wastes less resources! Gather is designed to make hosting dinners easy.

What it does

Gather makes hanging out easy, safe, and sustainable by providing a simple, no-login-required interface that allows hosts to request items at their event and guests to share what they're bringing. Dietary restrictions (i.e. vegan, kosher) and allergies (i.e. wheat, dairy) are made public to the group so that everyone has something to eat.

How we built it

We used Vue.js to build the front-end, and connected it to a Firebase database to store and update the data.

Challenges we ran into

This was Jodi's first time using Vue.js, and writing in JavaScript! It was a quick ramp-up as Johanna was tasked with connecting to a Firebase back-end while helping Jodi troubleshoot her UI woes. We spent a lot of time white-boarding UX decisions as well, wanting to think through as many use cases as possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are super proud of Jodi for how quickly she caught on to Vue.js and was able to create multiple aesthetic, responsive screens! Johanna really spear-headed the product design aspects of it, and her documentation helped keep us organized and on track. The thoughtful design and user-focused experience is what we are excited to share with the world!

What I learned

Jodi learned a lot about Vuetify components, and some Javascript syntax. Jodi also learned a lot from Johanna about the power of planning and also that simple code is better. We both had the opportunity to remind ourselves about the importance of iteration and MVPs. Johanna learned Vuefire (Vue to Firebase connecter), got experience teaching a peer a new language, and managing a product end-to-end.

What's next for gather

We see this as an app that would be helpful not just for millennials organizing dinner parties, but also for PTO gatherings, birthday celebrations, or even a potluck wedding! Next steps include building a more robust UI with more customization possible, adding more accessible design features, and building a more featureful system.

Built With

• firebase
• vue.js
• vuefire
• vuetify