Inspiration
At our school, Oberlin College, there is a Facebook group called Oberlin Barter and Trade, which many people from our community have found very useful. It is a very positive space that allows people to post things online for which they have no use anymore...and other people can get in contact with them so pick those things up. Often times people trade unusual things (think hugs, tea, grocery trips, jokes, etc.!) for other items, which adds to how unique the community is!
What it does
Twine provides a platform through which people in a community (specifically college students within their campus community) can offer the things they no longer need to others who might benefit from it. College is an expensive place to be, and we want to make it as affordable as possible. Users can list items for others, who can for things they need by most recent or by searching. It is easy for users to make accounts so that they can get into contact with others with whom they will exchange goods. Once they have an account, people can post what they are able to give!
How we built it
The majority of Twine is built using standard web technologies - Javascript, HTML, and CSS - and we relied on Google's Firebase system (including the Firestore database) to house our data. The front end of the site was built using the React framework, which allowed us to deliver a quick, seamless user experience (with lots of room for improvement, growth, and polish!).
Challenges we ran into
Interfacing between the front end, middleware, and backend proved to be a pretty challenging task. Even after we had written/drawn out what we expected the structure to be, it changed a few times and we had to adapt. It was also our first time using the Firebase system for things like querying the database and user authentication, so it was a lot of documentation to go through!
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're really proud that we were able to accomplish just about all of the functionality that we imagined in our first conception of the app. There were lots of technologies in this product that were new to everyone or most everyone, so I think we're all really impressed that we were able to both learn and effectively implement so many new things! Finally, we're proud of the message and brand that we tried to coalesce around throughout the development of this project. We all support the general mission of the project, and so it wasn't hard to be so enthusiastic about it.
What we learned
So much! We learned a ton about the stages of planning and implementation that are absolutely crucial for a multi-faceted project like this. Even though it was tempting to just jump in and code, we were thorough in our planning and over time it really paid off. Finally, aside from all of the super useful and interesting technologies we learned, we gained valuable experience in the realm of collaboration within a group where everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Everything we learned about helping everybody out matches or even surpasses the technical knowledge that we gained during the project.
What's next for Twine
Well, we've got a lot of design to implement that didn't make it in the 36 hours that we had! We want to make it as approachable as possible for college students so that they feel it is a tool that they can use in their local communities that is also secure and worth it. We want to implement the functionality of wish lists..so that users can keep track of what they need. Also, we'd like to have lists of unique things that people are able to offer others! This app isn't about money, and we want to keep it that way. How many creative things can you offer your peers in a mutual exchange of kindness?
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