Helplaza

Sign in with your email & password
View the cards of all users in you local community
Edit your card and fill in what you need help with
Select the price you are willing to pay, strictly less than $10
Set your urgency slider and hit update for the community to see

Inspiration

We have all faced a time where we needed help with something and might even be prepared to pay for it. If only you could let all your neighbors/classmates know that you need someone to help you with something and are willing to pay them up to $10. That's where Helplaza comes in. It solves this issue and lets you tell everyone what you need help with.

What it does

The app is very simple to use. It should be used by a local community (eg. a residential block). Every member of the community signs up for an account in the app. Their "help" card will be displayed on the home page for all to see. If they do not need help with anything, simply edit the card and say you don't need any help.

But if you need help with something, edit your card with your:

Real name
A description of the task you need help with
The amount you are willing to pay (only up to $10! It is suppose to be small help)
Urgency level

Based on the urgency level you selected, a circle with a red color will be displayed on the card. The more urgent the task, the darker the red circle.

Other users of the app can view the cards of all users (eg. neighbors) in the app and can go and help someone if they are willing to and a ready to earn some cash! Once the help is done, the original user should revert their card to "I'm good!".

How we built it

I used Flutter to build the mobile app. I also used Firebase as the backend for the application while using Cloud Firestore for the database.

Challenges we ran into

It was my first time using Flutter on a project. I had to learn lot's of the Flutter concepts on the go while developing the app. Moreover, it was also my first time using Firebase. So, I faced some trouble connecting to the backend and implementing some of the authentication features.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm glad that I managed to produce a working prototype of the application within the short 24 hour time frame of the hackathon. This coupled with the fact that I was able to learn more about Flutter and Firebase makes me very happy on completing the project.

What we learned

How to use Flutter to create mobile applications. How to used Firebase as a backend and Cloud Firestore as a database.

What's next for Helplaza

I hope to transform Helplaza into a local community enagaement application which promotes more interaction between the local community members. So, more features needs to be added!