Housedle

Inspiration

We were inspired by the art pieces that we saw on Habitat for Humanity Bulgaria's website, drawn by artists to present the current housing issues worldwide in art. We thought of how we could incorporate these pieces into our solution such that our users could appreciate and feel from the pieces, just like we did. Hence, we thought of having daily puzzles using these art pieces to give users a fun challenge to look forward to every day while they learn along the way.

What it does

Housedle incorporates daily exciting activities to allow users to be constantly engaged with the bot. Along the way, users also learn more about the housing situation worldwide in bite-sized content. Through the bot, we hope that it builds a connection with the users and regularly reinforce the importance of having decent housing worldwide.

How we built it

We used Telegram API in Java to enable interacting chat messaging and scheduling of daily puzzles, picture interpretation and daily facts upon completion. Firebase is used for user authentication, puzzles and associated learning tips. Puzzle implementation and design were done through HTML, CSS and Javascript.

Challenges we ran into

As our group had members with varying levels of experience and different technical skillsets, it was challenging to decide on the tech stack that we were going to use. Ultimately, we decided that a Telegram bot would be a good starting point as none of us have any experience with it and the learning curve would not be as steep.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we took the courage to join the hackathon despite our current heavy workload, and were able to come up with a solution that we could be proud of.

What we learned

Through this hackathon, we were able to learn how to power a Telegram bot using Java, as well as using Firebase to persist information. We were able to hone our HTML, Javascript and CSS skills to build a game.

What's next for Housedle

While the prototype may not be fully functional at the moment, we hope that we have the chance to continue working on it beyond this competition. Moving forward, Housedle can be a one-stop channel for users to know everything about Habitat for Humanity. For example, users can submit questions that they have to the bot, which Habitat for Humanity will be able to receive and reply. There can also be forums to unite a community and allow users to reinforce and motivate one another.