Hoos Thrifty

Inspiration

Our inspiration was to create a friendly and interactive website that connects students at UVA and residents of Charlottesville with a platform to sell and buy used goods. We wanted to promote a safe and sustainable space within the community, inspired by Facebook Marketplace, Depop, and Hinge.

What it does

The opening page offers users two primary options: to buy or to sell. If a user opts to sell, they are prompted to upload a photo and a description of their item. The app then guides them with creative and descriptive prompts, adding a fun twist to their marketing. On the buyer’s side, the app displays one used good at a time. Buyers can swipe right to match with an item or swipe left to pass. While exploring products, buyers can also relax to a changing gradient background. Once a match is made, the user receives a detailed product description along with fun, item-related prompt details.

How we built it

We built the website using React.js, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and Node.js. We used Visual Studio Code as our IDE and Git and Github for version control.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into issues trying to connect the back-end Node with React. We also had issues trying to connect the seller's item to the buyer’s screen. Furthermore, it took a bit to learn how to wrap images with buttons and implement this on our pages.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of our UI/UX design that helps provide an interactive and fun space for users to connect and thrift. We are also proud of the components and features that we were able to implement with React as we are all first time React users.

What we learned

We learned about front-end development using React, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. We also learned about planning and improving UI/UX through software like Figma and utilizing Framer-Motion to create animations in our program.

What's next for Hoos Thrifty

We hope to successfully create a back-end so that an Account feature can be implemented, and users can build a stronger community with each other. We also hope to continue building upon our UI/UX to implement more interactive animations throughout our website. Furthermore, we'd love to implement an intuitive and powerful tagging system so users can find what they want more easily.