Second Life

Inspiration

We were inspired by the existing foodapp toogoodtogo. It seemed like such a simple yet innovative method for tackling hunger and food waste. However, it's important to note that toogoodtogo exists so that food businesses can avoid wasting their products by selling them at a reduced price. Our app, Second Life, exists so that UBC students can access a safe and consistent channel for nutritious food without having to even pay! In other words, we wanted to create this app in order to change the food landscape at UBC; it reflects the simple ingenuity of letting the individual become the "provider" as well as the "providee" in their community. In essence, our team wanted to strengthen community-building and food solidarity on the UBC campus with our app. We know that students will never tire of chowing down on good, safe food! We want all viable food to have a Second Life!

How we built it

The front-end of the project was built with React.js while the styling was built using CSS. We didn't have to worry about the back-end of the project since we opted to use dummy data. Instead, our team chose to focus on creating a polished UI with Figma while making sure that front-end was functional and reflected our Figma prototype.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge we ran into was learning how to use the CSS library for our front-end, specifically on Bootstrap. Since we had a limited amount of time, our teammates working on the front-end decided that using a library would save us time and allow us to accomplish more in the allotted 24 hours. However, we slowly found out that using the library actually costed us time because it took way longer to figure out how to use the code in it. Nonetheless, our teammates pushed through and helped us create a wonderful app.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the team that we have created and the project we brought into existence! We had initially entered the hackathon as two pairs of hackers so finding each other and teaching one another new skills was such a incredible experience. Also, we are very proud of the final version of our product! It thoroughly meets our expectations for what we had envisioned at the start of the 24 hours.

What we learned

Two of our team members learned how to code the front-end of the project as individuals with little to no experience. Our other two members learned how to create a Wireframe in Figma and from that develop a Figma prototype with also little to no experience.

What's next for Second Life

The future for Second Life is sky high. We want the app to be functional and efficient as possible; our goal for the future would be to implement more features that allow users to communicate with each other in a more convenient fashion. For example, we had discussed about implementing a functional chat feature within the app so that those giving away food could discuss with interested students about alternative meet-up locations. We also deliberated about integrating a feature that would allow users to view a map of the campus with location markers indicating all non-expired food that is nearby. This would allow students to optimize their use of the app so that they can find closest free food. Lastly, we'd like the app to expand in the future so that small food businesses at UBC can also participate and give away their food to hungry students. We also considering gamifying the giver's experience by adding a point currency to encourage them to accumulate points and unlock rewards.