Tether

Tether
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Inspiration

The transfer of personal contact information is not always a smooth process. Swapping business cards is an outdated practice in the changing technological landscape. Millennials and a majority of the workforce rely on phones for almost all of consumed data. With this in the back of our minds, we decided to create an iOS mobile app that easily allows people to swap contact information and make new connections in seconds.

What it does

The app generates a QR Code based on the contact information the user inputs. This includes name, e-mail, phone number, address, website address, and other optional fields. The user is then prompted to a QR Code screen which he or she will show to the other party. The receiver can then use a third-party QR Scanner to quickly gather all the information into the phone's default address book. The biggest benefit about this code is that it can be reused repeatedly in the case of large groups.

How we built it

Our team used sketch for designing and Xcode for implementing the code. Through Xcode, we used the language Swift.

In terms of creating the QR Code, we had to add image filters and the information of the contact into the image.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into many errors some of which included Apple's bugs. Errors included transferring information through view controllers, keeping Tab Bar not hidden, Core Data, and integration of the Facebook and E-mail external features. Another issue was creating the QR Code because the image size varies depending on the information so we had to add constraints to make sure it was readable. Saving the data that users inputted was perhaps the biggest time-consumer.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the work that we were able to accomplish, considering the fact that we are all first years with little or no programming skills. While we were explicitly intimidated in many aspects, and had to go through multiple rounds of ideas, we refused to give up on our will to learn more about mobile development. From a personal standpoint, it was also great for us as students to create a team environment together, despite one of us traveling from another school and meeting the other two two hours before hacking began. Our mental and will-power was definitely tested with all of the frustration that came with the feeling of wasted-time looming overhead, but the three of us can agree wholeheartedly that we have come out of this experience as overall better coders.

What we learned

We learned the fundamentals of a QR Code Generator and the many functions of iOS Programming. In addition, we learned how to use Sketch such as the art board to create the design of the app. We also met the CEO of DagM8 who gave us many useful tips. His first tip was the 80-20 rule which basically means do not spend too much on a small issues. He also pointed us in the direction of using server-based data cloud to hold information rather than using Core Data in the app. In all, he was a great benefit to our project.

What's next for QRGenerator

We hope to implement a QR Scanner into the app and have another tab bar with history of scans. In addition we, want to incorporate Firebase into Tether.

Looking forward to next year!