LOCATE

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  LOCATE's icon!

What's the problem being solved?

The problem that I wanted to tackle was overconsumption, and I wanted to build a program that could help the user incorporate sustainability into their everyday life. LOCATE helps the user find small and authentic local businesses in Germantown to help ensure their purchases are sustainable and contribute to the community.

What does LOCATE do?

I did some research on different local businesses in Germantown under three categories: Food, Clothing, and Gifts. The user could select a certain category and a file would be printed presenting a list of 10 well-rated businesses of that type around Germantown. For the Food category, I tried to find restaurants that were ethically and organically sourced. If a user was curious about a certain business, they could enter the business name and the program would print a link to their website so they could learn more about it. For Clothing I looked for thrift and antique stores to connect back to this idea of reducing overconsumption and reusing resources. For Gifts, I found organically sourced floral shops, stores that sold handmade and culturally significant things, and even a store that did glasswork.

There was also an info section about LOCATE and why supporting small businesses is incredibly beneficial, both to the environment and the community.

The icon!

Designing the icon was my favorite part—I had used the gift box emoji in a string in the welcome section of my code, so I wanted to make an icon similar to that. The yellow gift box signifies the shopping aspect, and the star is meant to represent quality, like rating a business out of 5 stars. I wanted to make the ribbon at the top of the gift box look like a flower to illustrate how LOCATE prioritizes environmental sustainability.

So, what's next?

If I were to move forward with this project, I’d definitely want to incorporate AI to expand the search option. Instead of pulling from a file with my own research, the AI could find businesses around Germantown and look for their credibility on its own. Incorporating AI would also mean it could expand LOCATE's capabilities from just Germantown to any user's location!

Built With

• python
• replit