Native

Support Local. Stay Native.

Inspiration

COVID-19 has caused numerous changes to small businesses and restaurants. Some of the changes may be as simple as having to socially distance while shopping; other changes may be as major as effecting what is available in stock. Due to the continuous changing of regulations, consumers are often left unsure if what they need will be available. Native aims to solve this uncertainty in consumers, by compiling a database of up-to-date information about the changes made to shopping locally in the Indianapolis area!

What it does

Native is a website that uses collected data from small businesses and restaurants from local areas of Indianapolis. We then compile that data into a simple web page that is very easy to navigate, so users can easily find what information they are looking for. If users are simply looking to browse, Native allows users to sort by location and what kind of business they are looking for. Lastly, Native allows for business owners to change their information readily through multiple means. Once this information is changed, the information will be available for all users to see!

How we built it

We built Native by using a platform called Mendix. Mendix is a low code web development platform, that allows for easy translation of a spreadsheet of data. Mendix uses a qml based language, that allows objects and decisions to be made through qml charts. While this is limiting in some regards, we were able to create an easy to use platform for consumers to find updated data. We also used google forms to allow users and business owners to report issues or to ensure up-to-date information.

Challenges we ran into

Due to limitations with translating information from Mendix Studio Pro (desktop client) to Mendix Studio (website client that we use), we were unable to allow users to create an account. Allowing users to create an account would allow us to collect demographic data from our users so that we could target our website for people in the audience demographic. This would change a lot in our advertising structure on the website, as well as what we would continue to develop.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An accomplishment that we're proud of is being able to publish a fully functioning website in 5 weeks. This is an absolutely amazing accomplishment due to the adjustments our development team had to make to go in depth on a platform that we were all relatively new too. Another accomplishment that we're proud is being able to work through our initial struggles. For the first week we struggled finding a suitable platform for the product we wanted to build. In the beginning of the second week, we found Mendix, which contained all of the features that we needed to create our website using the data that we collected from small businesses.

What we learned

One thing that we learned from the development side is that finding the best platform is especially important, including researching beforehand. By finding Mendix, we were able to create our website without too many issues. However, as we delved further into the project, we began to realize the underlying problems with the platform that we chose. The cost for Mendix means that our business model would be unsustainable until our company is able to expand. Because of this, the development team considered moving to a much cheaper platform, such as Amazon Honey Code, in the final week.

What's next for R&SB - Team 5 - TechPoint S.O.S. Challenge

One of the things that we would do if we had an additional 5 weeks is to add more data. In the 5 weeks, we were only able to add data for one designated neighborhood. If we had another 5 weeks, we would work on gathering correct information for other neighborhoods that we plan on expanding to, such as Massachusetts Avenue and Fletcher Place. We would also work on adding more information to the store details page, including star ratings and average meal cost (per person). Lastly, we would work on creating a system that live updates data on the website, instead of being reliant on business managers and user feedback.

After Native grows in Indianapolis, one of the main goals for Native would be to sell our infrastructure to cities around the country. By accessing different markets, Native would have the ability to grow exponentially, while being able to help get accurate information to consumers across the country. We hope by selling our infrastructure, it will encourage consumers to shop locally at small businesses around the country.

On the development side, the first thing that we would work on is translating our product to Amazon Honey Code from Mendix. This would allow us to have a much more sustainable business model. Apart from translating our website to Amazon Honey Code, account creation would be the biggest feature that we would work on. This would allow users to have personalized information based on their favorite stores and where they prefer to shop. Another feature we would look to implement is to have our own forms to submit issues. We would need a consumers information to do this successfully, which relies on account creation.