hackWithYou

main interface
quiz used to create teammate filters
landing page
mongo data
Layout Sketch

Inspiration

Our previous experiences at hackathons, and hearing others express how teams with strangers can be a mixed bag. Sometimes you make new friends and create something cool, but unfortunately there are also times when you can accidentally pair yourself with people who have different expectations and approaches to hackathons. Unless your very diligent on communication before the hackathon its very easy to find this out when its too late. We wanted to create an app that minimizes this experience, creating a more enjoyable hackathon for everyone.

What it does

This website allows you to find different teammates based on your selected interests. An example of this might be new/experienced or competitive/casual. Through your selected interests you will discover the profiles of people who match your interests and build your ideal team.

How we built it

It all started with sketching. We wanted to get an idea of a design in place, with understanding of the primary functions we wish to implement, alongside it's layout. We first did quick sketches on paper, before moving onto Figma for a more fleshed out design. This is our strongest portion of the project, and how we did all of the design.

We built it using MERN Stack, which stands for MongoDb, Express.JS, React, and Node.js. It was a framework we were familiar with, and one we knew can handle the functions we wished to implement. We also used Codex and Claude to assist us in developing the code and debugging the site.

Challenges we ran into

Last minute project change caused for a massive constraint. We also have little to no backend experience so we had to learn how to implement it quick.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We learned to adapt to our situation and collaboratively created a website we feel proud of and gained better familiarity with backend.

What we learned

Both of us are mostly frontend developers so we learned a lot about implementing a backend and were introduced to technologies that we wanted to become more familiar with such as Auth0. Despite the struggles we faced, it allowed us to discover forms of technology we wish to refine and continue to consider in future works. We also gained valuable insight into working under the pressure of tight deadlines.

What's next for hackWithYou

We would want to implement an admin account type that would allow hackathon organizers to customize the website by adding their hackathon events list to the program and allowing hackers to create schedules on the app that can be easily populated with these events. Hackers could also be able to create their own sharable events that others can join.