African American Museum
Logo
Rockingham Historical Site

Inspiration

The inspiration branched from the theme of this Hackathon, Media. I founded Hidden History in order to connect people to their town's past and also tell a story through their town's historical sites. This project is meant to excite people about history and walking in the shoes of previous people.

What it does

Hidden History is an app that is meant to connect people through historical storytelling and put people in the shoes of those who once roamed the same land. QR codes specifically made for Hidden History are placed throughout multiple historical sites, and then a small description is given, as well as an image. The description is handwritten to demonstrate how people (including famous historical figures) used the area/building in their lives. As far as the theme, the project helps to discover what hidden secrets lie throughout the town, including museums or historical events that took place. The disrupt is to connect people in a different way. Usually, talking to people is done over messages or on social media. Hidden History allows us to find new places and connect over our community, something unique, and encourages people to go outside more, even if having screens is non-negotiable. The display is done through storytelling, how people of the time era lived or used the historical site in their lives, similar to how our current generation uses historical sites on TikTok or YouTube.

How we built it

I built the app using SwiftUI and Xcode, along with all the Apple interfaces provided to developers for app development. I had a tough time learning the language as I wanted to challenge myself with a programming language I had barely touched. A huge help was having the physical device with me, so I could implement it as if I were a user. I was able to put myself in the shoes of those who would use it and see how much I liked it, as I would agree, I am a part of the general demographic of people who would spend a lot of time on apps (teenagers).

Challenges we ran into

Since I am fairly new to the Swift programming language, I had a tough time with simple tasks like switching views or implementing the QR scanner in the app. Specifically, switching through different views was quite interesting, but I was able to persevere through making it due to previous coding knowledge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Surprisingly, it was quite easy to learn how to make apps for Apple due to their interface and the simplicity of programming a new app using Swift. It was a bit of a steep learning curve at first, but due to my knowledge about other programming languages, I was able to persevere through it and eventually become a bit more creative when it comes to coding. Specifically, I loved using conditionals, as that is a universal programming topic, instead of finding a function that Swift supports for hiding and showing Navigation Buttons.

What we learned

I learned how to make Views in SwiftUI. As well as to insert images and add text. However, at the end of the day, I learned that a lot of programming languages are built with the same model in mind. The way you can make something in one language can be replicated in another, aside from the different keywords and formats. The actual thinking process can be replicated anywhere.

What's next for Hidden History

The future of Hidden History lies in finding more historical sites wherever I go! I plan on finding the top 3 historical sites whenever I am in a new area, as currently, the app is only available for the citizens of Montgomery Township in Skillman, NJ. However, I always travel to the historical city of Morristown, which has many historical sites. This will also be an initiative for me and prompt me to travel more often. Aside from the obvious, I hope to make Hidden History a bit more user-friendly and focus on the UI/UX part of app-making. I hope to make Hidden History fully an augmented reality; as of right now, users are only prompted with AR for a second. I hope add an AR feature where people can roam wherever and click on a site to see how historical it is, further connecting them with more places, instead of scanning a QR code.