PinPoint

Inspiration

Interns and new employees at Esri often face the challenge of exploring Redlands and its surroundings due to the limited time spent on the Esri campus. Many interns don't even know where to start looking for places to visit on platforms like Google or Yelp. We believe that the best recommendations come from previous interns and employees who share similar demographics and interests. To address this, we have developed this app as a one-stop resource for future Esri interns. It compiles the top recommended locations from past interns and employees, essentially replicating the experience of asking previous interns for their suggestions. This app provides a curated guide to the best spots to visit, making it easier for new interns to find great places without the guesswork. Our web app aims to offer the ArcGIS community a streamlined and enriching experience as they explore Southern California, just as if they were getting advice directly from past interns and employees.

Application

PinPoint is a web app that creates a recommendation system through different criteria such as comprehensive rating system, transportation analytics, and the personalized demographic interest of each user operates within a restricted network for only individuals that own an ArcGIS license. With the app also linked to your Esri ArcGIS login, this limits the users to only those associated with the Esri GIS community. This allows for a very specific data set that users can utilize for precise and trustworthy ratings or reviews on a specific location. PinPoint then allows the user to search and select specific locations or activities that they are interested in, and then view and interact with that point. The user can leave a rating, review, or comment on their experience at that location.

How we built it

We incorporated ArcGIS Online web map and feature layers with ArcGIS Map SDK for Javascript, ArcGIS Location Services and OAuth 2.0 to customize our map functions and the log-in function for our user accounts' authentication. The interface design used Calcite Design System, and the web app is published in Github Pages. We built an ArcGIS Story Map to present our project.

Challenges we ran into

As we had little experience in integrating maps and related users' interactions with app development before, the entire process was a challenging learning experience. Additionally, we ran into roadblocks when deciding the workflow on how to compile multiple reviews for the same location, as we needed to decide on methods of visualizing aggregated reviews or whether we were going to use related tables.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud that our team created a functional web app that we would all use and find helpful for our internship experience. We are proud of creating maps that display drive time and filters that give users a more informative experience. Our teamwork communication was efficient and fluent, and we put all of effort to make the app more user-friendly and closer to our general goal.

What we learned

We learned how to use ArcGIS’s API for JavaScript, work with API Keys and Authentication Tokens, and work in a team composed of people from various skillsets and fields.

What's Next

With every use of our web application, we can further refine the construction of our database and the accuracy of our recommendations. As the GIS community continues to grow, we seek to further the impact of our platform, to foster community and adventure throughout Southern California.