Think & Look Clean (T&LC)

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Inspiration

Our closet consists of lots of clothing that we do not need. We understand that when shopping the sustainability of products is not consumers' top priority; so we created this website to increase responsible consumerism. To help control this consumerism and knowing that a lot of people go through this, we decided to build a program that will allow us to buy products that will last us a long time with the materials and ethical rates. We decided to focus our project on 3 UN goals, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth and Responsible Consumption and Production.

What it does

This website is designed to be responsive and accessible across all devices. It showcases a variety of clothing items, each accompanied by a rating system represented by leaf nodes and prices. Our unique approach allows users to easily measure the sustainability of products. Utilizing a colour-coded spectrum—Green, Yellow, and Red—highlights the quality of each item, aiding users in making informed, conscious decisions before making a purchase based on its sustainability rating. The intuitive design ensures a seamless and informative shopping experience for all users.

How we built it

We built this website in HTML/CSS for the front end, SQL for the database, and Node.js and Python (Flask and Requests libraries) for the logic-building and back end. Additionally, Firebase was utilized for Authentication and Realtime Database features.

Challenges we ran into

We had to learn web basics starting from HTML and CSS from the beginning and build our knowledge from there. For example, we had to learn how to connect the front-end and back-end for the first time. A lot of the time certain components were working; however, connecting the database to other components was often a tedious process as we were unable to see what was going wrong in the background. Additionally, we ran into a problem when attempting to connect the web scraping components to the HTML file.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of several accomplishments in the making of our website. For example, we are proud of our integration of frontend and backend technologies. By leveraging HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python, we ensured an optimal user experience across different devices and screen sizes. Additionally, we created a database using SQL to store and manage data efficiently. This allowed us to query and compare the composition of each product efficiently, and as a result, we obtained a score that depicted the sustainability of each product. We then displayed this score on the front end in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.

What we learned

We worked with front-end languages for the first time, HTML/CSS. We learned how to create structured web pages, forms for user input, and responsive web pages for different screen sizes. We also worked with Javascript and we learned how to make our website interactive with users by using DOM manipulation. Additionally, we learned how to use Python as a server-side language to code our web-scrapping data. Furthermore, we used SQL to help with database design and we connected that with Javascript.

What's next for Think & Look Clean (T&LC)

We aim to elevate the backend by implementing a brand rating system based on ethical working practices, enabling users to access detailed information about each brand's policies on our website. There is ongoing work on enhancing individual product pages to provide in-depth information about each product. Additionally, we are committed to improving the website's usability and design. Our strategy involves refining the algorithm by incorporating diverse data, including supply chain details, certifications, and standards, to accurately assess the sustainability of each product. Our vision extends beyond being an intermediary; we aspire to transform our website into a comprehensive one-stop shop. Users will not only find information but also have the convenience of purchasing products directly through our platform. We firmly believe that a product's sustainability cannot be solely determined by its composition; it requires a holistic consideration of ethical factors such as working conditions and environmental impact.