KifuSF -
Inspiration
KifuSF started as a product where we wanted to give direct assistance to the unhoused community members. We thoughts that the best way to help them improve their lives was to provide them with valuable everyday items. The donation of necessity everyday items will help to assist the growth of individuals. We also thought we could simplify the donation process that eliminates all the hassles of donating to a charity.
What it does
Kifu is an app that allows anybody to donate unneeded necessities to a local app postings, where volunteers are able to select and pickup these items from the donors that posted to transport the listed goods to a local charity service which will use them to benefit the unhoused.
How we built it
Our team developed a two pronged approach where we wanted to develop more than just a mobile platform. We also developed an interactive landing page for the application so that users can be informed and see if the app was applicable to them before they download the app. Our technology stacks include the use of Swift 4 and Xcode to develop the iOS app while using html, css, and javascript for the landing page.
Challenges we ran into
Web development was a main concern going into this hackathon since none of us had valid web development experience that was sufficient enough to develop a full scale product. We surmounted this hurdle by learning about bootstrap templates and following coding tutorials that helped us to develop the landing page. Our iOS team struggled with the implementation of the Firebase database tree structures to allow for a functional flow and product.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are extremely proud of the amazing team dynamics and bonds we were able to build that made the development process completely painless. The development of strategies such as stand ups every thirty minutes and maintaining constant communication despite english being the main language for only three out of five of our members. Technologically, we were proud that we were able to implement a complex database to support an entire functional platform for donations
What we learned
We learned how to effectively communicate so that we can retain calm under a time intensive environment. Four of our members are first time hackathon competitors and we learned the structure of how hackathons work. Lastly, we learned what it feels like to work without a sufficient amount of sleep.
What's next for KifuSF
The next step for KifuSF is to reach out to established charities in the area to helped reach out to those who need the donation the most. Along, with uploading our app to a test flight beta test.
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