Live @ The Pantry

Live @ The Pantry provides "real time" menu updates for the ASUCD Pantry that will allow users easier access to desired food items and to save time by planning accordingly.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration came from being a regular at the Pantry. The website had the option of being able to access the availability of the items but it was not convenient and didn’t seem to be updated often. We wanted to implement a tool for the staff of The Pantry to be able to update the status of the stock easily and let users be able to access the menu faster. If updated well, students would know when and if they should go get their groceries on a certain day or not, making use of their time wisely.

What it does

The website we built is easy to the eye and simple to navigate. It is meant for the user to see real time status of the stock at The Pantry and be able to know what will be coming to the stock soon as well as access a chatbot for frequently asked questions.

How we built it

We used the languages Javascript, CSS and HTML to build the website and it’s widgets. With the help of the websites Repl.it and CodePen.io, we could make this website through our knowledge and learning in the limited hours.

Challenges we ran into

  1. It was difficult to get accurate data to use on our project. We needed to show the functionality of our live menu but since the public data the Pantry has out is not often updated, it was hard to know what was actually in stock and what was most often distributed.
  2. In the beginning, we needed to work out what language we were going to use, what type of project (app or website) we were going to focus on and what tools we were going to use to make our project. It was hard to decide because we all had different experiences with different languages and tools. We needed to find middle-ground in our skill level and familiarity with the free tools at hand.
  3. Learning new things and using the new knowledge right away was also a challenge. Because we lack practice in certain tools, it was hard to start things from scratch or debug code that we couldn’t full understand yet. It was definitely a big learning experience to try new things.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of how the whole website turned out, look-wise and functionality-wise. The website started off like a skeleton through HTML only but several team members were experienced in CSS and design so they used their skills to make an aesthetically pleasing, simple project. The potential of this project is also something we find pride in because the functionality is very practical and it’s something we could use as well when we visit The Pantry.

What's next for Live @ The Pantry

Firstly, it is important to prioritize making the current features of this website better and useful with real life data and user input. Then we can focus on the back-end portion of this project which we lacked on. With back-end, we can make the website more interactive and implement tabs. This means we can create an ordering system that is easy for the client to use and understand. Finally, transforming the website to have an app version can make it even more user-friendly.

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