Passport Pal

HomePage
SignUpPage
SignUpPage2
ExplorePage1
ExplorePage2
AboutUsPage

Inspiration

Oftentimes, people have a strong desire to travel and explore the world. However, various issues prevent them from fulfilling their wanderlust. Whether it be an inactive friend group, preference differences, or schedule conflicts, many are unable to visit their paradise. We have all been in a scenario where you are trying to plan a trip with your friends, but you all have different preferences, goals, budgets, etc. The fact of the matter is that your friends may not like the same things as you but there is someone out there who does. We wish that we could stop wasting time in the group chat phase, and more time actually traveling. Passport Pal was made so that you could find others who are similar to you so that you can stop making sacrifices.

What it does

Passport Pal allows you to make a profile with all of your travel preferences and explore other people's profiles. If you run across someone you like, then you can request to start planning a trip with them. When you send a request, that person will get a SMS message that you have requested to plan a trip with them, along with your basic information. If they’re also interested, they’ll be able to send a message back to your phone number.

How we built it

We used Velo by Wix to create a web application with functionality like data storage and API connections. All the subpages of our website had custom Javascript code so we could collect data about user interactions and modify the website accordingly. We used the wix-data and wix-storage APIs to store user information. Finally, we used the Twilio API to access that information and send a SMS alert to another user.

Challenges we ran into

After implementing our first database, we began to ran into some challenges as we started thinking about data transfer and visualization. We had to figure out the process of data transferring from the person requesting a match to their preferred Passport Pal, and we struggled with sending our data with the Twilio API in the form of an SMS message. For our explore page, we also ran into some trouble viewing registered members and sending a SMS request to their specific phone number. In the end, it was a lot of trial and error but we were able to adapt and create a functioning website!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making a fully functioning website with limited coding experience. Using multiple API’s to make use of the datasets we would gather using our website. Being able to send messages with profile info.

What we learned

We learned how to develop a full-stack web application, especially gaining knowledge about managing and querying databases and working with APIs. It was challenging to conceptualize the data transfer and storage, but we learned how to troubleshoot problems quickly. It was also our first time using these technologies, so we spent a lot of time deciphering documentation!

What's next for Passport Pal

We would love to implement algorithms so the website is tailored for the user, like personalizing the explore page based on travel preferences and displaying your top travel matches. Matching with multiple people would allow you to form travel groups directly through the website as well. Another feature we would like to add is the addition of a verification process to increase your safety while looking for travel buddies, which would let you scan a document like your driver’s license.