Over the past few months, certain terms have become quite popular: Social Distancing Community Strength Mutual Aid Social as a service
Since my country(India) went into lockdown, as have many other countries, i found myself in need of interacting and engaging with people in my neighborhood for local queries like open grocery stores or measures imposed by our society. This is when i realised that there were no direct means for me to connect with people in my society unless i knew them or someone created a group of 400 members
This inspired me to enable Periferi. Its a simple concept that experiments with a new approach to socializing. Its a location based, community driven platform which can connect people belonging to the same building, or the same neighborhood, or even the same district or city.
What it does
- A user can create a Periferi request of any area around them.
- If a certain number of people approve, the Periferi gets created, and thus a community is formed.
- The feed is based on your current location and the selected area. You can Pinch out to check out posts from a larger area like your city, or the country, or Pinch in to engage a smaller Periferi like your appartment. -You can interact with people in that area, find and post important information, post requirements and much more.
How I built it
This project is built for Android. Its an Android app that uses Firebase as the BaaS. I leveraged several functionalities offered by Firebase in the execution of this project, including the Realtime Database, Authentication, Firebase UI kit, and cloud functions. Its an extremely thorough build, meant for production ready deployment with full intention of reaching a wide audience and positively benefiting them in these times of crisis.
Challenges I ran into
Keeping the average consumer in mind, I tried to make the app as intuitive and as user friendly as possible. One particular feature of Periferi is the ability to toggle the feed based on the selected area. A user can view posts from their nation, they can view posts from their city, their district, or their appartment, or building and so forth. This posed a crucial UX challenge which was tackled with a very innovative and a pioneering UI gesture. It's a gesture mechanism which allows you to pinch In to view smaller Periferis like your building, and pinch Out to view Periferis of greater area. This was a difficult feature to develop but made the feed ever so intuitive.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
The prospect of this app legitimately helping people during this time of crisis is something that i would truly cherish. This is my humble contribution to fight against covid-19, in the best way that i can, through tech and social engineering. If this ends up in the hands of people locked into their homes during the lockdown, who are unable to go about their routines, Periferi could essentially enable them to connect with people in their neighborhood and empower them. Maybe just by a bit. But it would be an accomplishment in its true sense for me.
What's next for Periferi
Currently the app is in Beta Testing. I plan to complete its testing and release further iterations till its ready for the average consumer. After which, Periferi will be shared and used around the community and will be improved and enhanced in an agile manner.
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