Inspiration
Our team wanted to build this app to help encourage ourselves to interact with others and engage in our community to become better at managing our social anxiety after a particularly traumatic year. Especially as many could empathize with these feelings of uncertainty, fear, and frustration, we wanted to create an app that would aid users in reconnecting them in both a digital and physical space.
What it does
It matches people with similar interests in a friendly, romantic, or professional manner, while calculating a hypothetical Covid-19 risk of transmission on an interactive map. Additionally, the web app would also recommend local businesses that may have been impacted by the economic recession, encouraging users to meet at local businesses, hopefully improving the overall social and economic health of our community.
How we built it
Socialy started on pen and paper. We drew up many wireframes to find the best way to connect our ideas. We then set up a database to create a temporary fake community to test the web app. Lastly, everything came together with React, Firebase, and lots of graphic design.
Challenges we ran into
Within the time frame, we were only able to fully develop the prioritized aspects of the app. Additionally, with only student-friendly programs to create the graphic designs, it was difficult to polish them through lack of better resources and tools. It also took much trial and error to develop our theme, color palette, and visual cues to represent our project.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud that, despite being a two-person team, we managed to create an aesthetic, functional, and clean app that serves a general purpose for any audience, while also weaving inclusivity and intent into its structure. We are very proud of the direction that this project turned and fully intend to continue refining and developing it until a finalized version can be released. Additionally, with limited background and resources to accomplish a large-scale project that would normally require more than 2 people, we are also satisfied with the progress that we made.
What we learned
We learned how much time and effort goes into creating even the most minimalistic designs, constantly fixing and editing minor details in visual aesthetics or programming code. For the graphic designs, we learned how geometric shapes, relations, and curves can be utilized to create unique, original artwork. Additionally, with color theory, character placement, white space, and other variables, we learned how to incorporate these art elements into our visual theme.
What's next for Socialy
Socialy will continue to undergo new feature implementation, prioritizing the density map and messaging system. In addition, we would like to continue to refine the UX/UI by further sophisticating our code to appeal more to our original design. Hopefully, we plan to remain open to inspiration, seeking what conflicts we face in our daily lives that hinder us in any form to ruminate and brainstorm solutions.
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