Interstellar Itineraries

Inspiration

When sitting down to decide on a problem we wanted to solve for this hackathon, we went through the many different problems that we faced in our lives, trying to find one that we all shared and one that we could attempt to properly solve. After being stumped for quite a while we ended up discussing the hackathon itself, especially our experience with it. At first all we talked about was how interesting the event was and how we enjoyed all the different activities, however the one complaint we all had was the confusion we faced with getting communication about the event. Nearly every hour, we would all get countless notifications from REMIND, the app used to ensure attendees are kept up to date with the events of the hackathon, and the numerous messages often made it difficult to differentiate what was important from what wasn’t. This realization spurred us to attempt to solve the issue through the development of an event planning tool that can be used to effectively store event data in one area and communicate reminders to attendees in a clear manner.

What it does

Our event planning tool allows for a host user to input data into a website which stores it in an easily readable and accessible way. The workspace in which the user creates their event plan has simplified buttons and tools to ensure the user experience (UX) is done with ease. In editing mode, the host can input many different pieces of data, such as date and time, venue address, important details, and any other important announcements. To enhance the user interface (UI) we have included a color change tool so the event plan can match an aesthetic of the user’s choice. Our entire project design is created to be simple, yet modern so the user’s experience with our tool goes off without a hitch.

How we built it

We designed the website using Figma in which we created the tool’s aesthetic and created the different frames of the project. We created a prototype through wireframing the different buttons and frames to simulate what the real website would look like. Later, we developed a mobile app prototype through translating the Figma design into Swift.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenges we faced when making this was finding a problem to solve, and learning how to use Figma. Finding a problem to solve took up a lot of our time, but once we figured out what we were going to do we took off with it. One of the bigger challenges was working with a new tool and making sure to finish everything in a timely manner. None of us knew how to use Figma from the get go, so we had to find out what all the website’s buttons did and how to make the website functions work in a few hours. Despite these challenges, we were able to finish everything in a timely manner and become experts on Figma.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to make an efficient app that makes it easy for students to get important information and for instructors to organize events for their students. Since we are beginners, this is an amazing accomplishment since we don’t have a lot of experience with coding compared to the other people in the competition.

What we learned

We have learned a lot about website design and we have especially come to value the efforts put into making a high quality UI. We learned what makes the UX more enjoyable

What's next for Interstellar Itineraries

We would like to finish adding and configuring the rest of the features (Share, edit, etc) as well as increase the customization options. In our app we would like to implement the use event code area for better sharing. We would also like to better learn how to use HTML and CSS to release a website.