Umass S.A.F.E.R.

Inspiration

One of our team members is allergic to a wide range of food items, including eggs, milk and shellfish. He frequently orders from the current Umass allergy food ordering app, but constantly struggles with the app's UI. This app was his brainchild -- he wanted to improve upon the preexisting app and UI to make ordering food easier for people with allergies.

What it does

Upon logging into the app, a user can create a food order, edit and view existing orders, and change their preferences.

Users can create an order by selecting an available calendar date on the calendar provided once "create an order" is clicked. Users will only be able to select the current day and order food if the time is earlier than 5PM in accordance with Umass dining policies. Then, a user will select either lunch or dinner, after which they can chose food items to order by cuisine type (ex. Mediterranean) and food group (ex. protein).
Users can also view their existing orders and edit them if they see fit. The way a user edits a preexisting order is similar to how they make a new order.
Preferences, which include what items a user is allergic to, determine which food items the app presents to the user in order creation and editing.

How we built it

First, we created a database of food items, what allergens they contain, and on which days they are offered using Postgresql. Then, we made functions for the database in Swift. Finally, we used these functions to connect our main app, which we built in Swift, with the database.

Challenges we ran into

Two of our members actually did not have any knowledge of Swift prior to the hackathon, so we had to take the first 10 or so hours to fiddle with the language. We experienced further technical errors with the Xcode developing software and had to re-install it at least once. Our largest technical challenge was the making of the order creation system, which entailed many errors and subsequent debugging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are most proud of the clean and efficient user interface that we put together. Since our goal was to improve upon the UI of the preexisting allergy ordering app, we feel as if we have accomplished our goal for the most part.

What we learned

The importance of version control and methodically sharing our work became very clear to us as the project went on. Using GitHub properly was something we all found very useful, since it allowed one person to see the entire team's progress on command.