Journey's Friend (Team 8//TM8)

Making use of easily accessible LLM models, simple React frontend and Node backend, we propose a relatively simple and elegant solution to make bus training for refugees affordable and approachable.

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Inspiration

We are driven to streamline public transportation training for newly arrived refugees in Buffalo, NY. Our goal is to reduce cost, complexity and make the process generally more approachable and efficient for all parties involved.

What it does

Journey's Friend will act essentially as a wrapper, which will package various key services and resources into an approachable, language-flexible application. This includes a detect-language translator, a personal ID card, a "food" and "emergency services" near me, all neatly streamlined by a Journey's Friend AI, which can be spoken to in any language.

How we built it

Please note that this application is not yet built - this is only a prototype, outlined in Figma. The logistics of actual production have been thought through and discussed in our presentation, and can certainly be realized with relative ease if pursued.

Challenges we ran into

One of the major challenges throughout the ideation phase and development of the application's UI was the consistent emphasis on approachability of the user interface. Having to assume limited tech-literacy, and a variety of languages (some of which cannot be translated into text), we had to take on a minimal-text UI, and provided a variety of different mediums with which users can interact with Journey's Friend.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Within roughly 12 hours, our team of five was able to flesh out our idea, discuss feasibility in various senses, develop an outline of the prototype in Figma, and complete a presentation on how we believe bus training for refugees on Buffalo's transportation system can be made simple, approachable and efficient, helping both those serving at Journey's End, as well as many refugees to come.

What we learned

The largest takeaway from this endeavor definitely was the amount of emphasis that goes into making sure an application is approachable and useful for all users. In short, it was an exercise in universal design concepts, both in terms of functionality, and UI/UX.

What's next for Journey's Friend

Moving forward, we have a variety of ideas for expansion - this would include potential sponsors weaved into the functionality, internships for the creation of this application, as well as ideas for expansion beyond the NFTA Buffalo transport system

Built With

  • figma
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