Skynder

Skynder makes choosing a holiday destination as simple as possible through a swiping mechanism and an AI recommendation and planning algorithm!

Comment

Inspiration

Skynder was inspired by the challenge of planning vacations with friends. Everyone has different preferences, and choosing a destination that suits everyone can be tough. We created Skynder to simplify this process and make group trip planning fun and effortless.

What it does

Skynder's philosophy is very simple: keep it easy 🧘‍♀️. If a group of fiends wants to plan a trip only the person that registers the activity has to register, all others can join with a code. Then, each one is presented with characteristics of a destination, such as "sunny", "water activities" or "budget friendly". If the user wants that feature then their slides right ✅, otherwise their slide left ❌. When all participants have introduced all the features then a custom algorithm (explained later) takes into consideration these preferences and chooses the best option for all among the +9500 possible destinations.

When the best destination is selected then users can see relevant information about the flights 📋, such as the time and date of departure, price and a direct link to buy a ticket for that specific flight. But that's not all! Planning what to do in the destination can be as challenging as choosing the destination itself. That's why Skynder also provides a daily planning with specially targeted activities that align with the interests of all participants 🎯. That way you and your friends can focus on relaxing and enjoying the time together 🌟.

How we built it

We have built the app through NodeJS and PostgresSQL. To deploy it we got a google cloud compute server which we configured on our own so that it's https and configured a custom domain for it.

Challenges we ran into

We faced challenges in web development such as front-end and back-end coordination and learning how the Skyscanner API works. Also quickly learning how to design a seamless user experience within 36 hours. Server configuration also proved difficult, and coordinating a team of four required strong leadership and teamwork skills.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We managed to develop an interesting app proposal that leverages a self-developed AI algorithm in order to get the best destination match for all the participants in the trip. Also, we configured a cloud server through ssh in order to host our server and configured a domain for the web page.

What we learned

We have learned many technologies:

  1. NodeJS
  2. Front-end development
  3. Remote server setup
  4. Skyscanner's API
  5. Domain setup

What's next for Skynder

We're very proud of what we've achieved with Skynder and excited for all the features that we've thought off but did not have time to implement, such as:

  1. Improved activities planning. Include pictures and links to the respective webpages.
  2. Include surprise trips in which the users don't know where they're going until a few days before.
  3. Include an AI chat that allows the user to ask more info about the planning and modify the proposed itinerary.
Share this project:

Updates