Ship | Devpost

Inspiration

We were inspired to build Ship because of our own experiences with social media, romance, and popular culture. "Shipping" is frequently used in young adult slang for the approving of a couple, even if (especially if) they aren't a couple yet. Shipping is a prominent part of angsty guys and gals across this country, and so we decided to make an app that makes it infinitely easier to express your shipping beliefs, and see if others agree.

What it does

The Ship app allows anyone who downloads it onto their phone to upload two photos and submit them as a "ship". The user can then provide first names and a humorous/possibly fictitious backstory, as well as the chance to upload more photos of them together. These are then woven into a backstory that any user can view. Ship also gives users the chance to upvote their favorite couplings.

How we built it

We used Javascript, HTML, and CSS to provide the core UI and functionality for our app. Further features, such as data storage, animations, and mobile app development were implemented using MongoDB and Cloudinary (cloud based data storage), JQuery and Bootstrap (powerful UI features), and Meteor and Cordova (conversion to mobile applications).

Challenges we ran into

We ran into quite a few challenges along the way towards finishing our app. First, it was a struggle incorporating the cloud data storage into our app. Moreover, we were having some trouble converting the Javascript into mobile platforms using Cordova. However, what kept us through was our strong belief in our idea.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a team entirely comprised of first-time hackathon-goers, we are proud of having finished with a product that was both highly creative and technically challenging to make. Surely this won't be our last experience with such passion and enthusiasm to build like we have never built before! (On top of that, of course, our logo is pretty darn awesome.)

What we learned

It's important to be able to think creatively, passionately, and intelligently. Very often, it's important to recognize the contributions of others towards valuably insightful ideas and perspectives. Some of the best teams are quite the mix of diverse talent and backgrounds, and big things can come out of the unexpected.

What's next for Ship

We believe of the potential of Ship to carve its own influence on young people today. Ship plays to a phenomenon that is, and has always been very popular. In our possible expansion, we'd like to hone in on the effectiveness of our filters, sharing and other social media features, and likely, a release in digital app stores everywhere.