Inspiration
As a student, organising local events related to specific topics in water sustainability (like clean-ups or access to clean drinking water in indigenous reserves) was often extremely difficult, as most students did not share the same amount of passion for the issue. Hence, with relatively low to mediocre levels of student engagement, our plans were limited to selling sweets and donating the proceeds. To add, the numerous organizations and companies that are dedicated to handling the challenge of water sustainability can also be quite hard to find, often requiring extensive research, even more so based on restrictions such as scale or location of the project, which discourages many from pursuing their passion altogether. We saw the need for a website that acts as a database for charities related to highly specific categories of volunteerism related to various topics around water sustainability, one that allows users to to search by topic or organization name. Students, without a sophisticated professional network may promote their charity event to find likeminded individuals to support their cause, or may reach out to organizations for inquiries, apply for positions, etc. The main objective of this project was to streamline access to information and support a greater sense of community and volunteerism. By increasing awareness and simplifying the process of connecting with these organizations, we are able to empower individuals to contribute to the preservation of our planet, and inspire collective action to reach a sustainable future.
What it does
Waterlinks, at its core, is a database for charities related to highly specific categories of volunteerism related to various topics around water sustainability, one that allows users to to search by topic or organization name. In addition, Waterlinks allows its users to find and collaborate with like-minded individuals in nearby regions interested in organising local charity events, as well as connecting with charities that interest them. Not only do local charities benefit from receiving volunteers they may not receive otherwise, students gain valuable experience working with individuals coming from a variety of interests and skills, but sharing a common passion, supporting their communities in a way that they envision. Students may create profiles to directly apply to volunteer postings or may promote their charity event to charities and individuals. The website contains 4 pages in total. The first page is the “Home” page, where users can find a brief description of our objectives and a fact of the day. The next page is the “Query” page, where users can find a list of different charities and organizations in our database. Users also have the ability to add an organization if it is not already mentioned. The next page is the “Contact Us” page, where users will find an email (not a real one in this prototype) for them to use to contact us. The final page is the “Profile” page which displays the user’s Profile.
How we built it
We have used 3 main softwares to develop our website. Before we started to actually develop the web pages, we needed software that would allow us to brainstorm and design what each page would look like. We found Figma to be a great tool for this, as it allowed us to easily pick our colour schemes, design the layout, and share the designs with one another. The designs we created on Figma acted as a reference for when we started to code the elements. Next, we used React, HTML, and CSS to develop our website on VS Code. By adding our files from VS Code to the Github repository, we were able to establish easy collaboration between each other. We all split up tasks based on specific skillset we wanted to demonstrate or learn and after giving each other a particular time window to work on a task individually, we would present and discuss where we are at and provide each other feedback to then use to finish up the task.
Challenges we ran into
We ran into many challenges along the way. First, the free version of Figma only grants the ability to design 3 designs. This became a problem because we had to design more than 3 web pages but were limited to only having 3 designs. To tackle this issue, we started to develop the pages on VS Code as soon as the page was designed. After we finished using the design, we would delete the file so that we could free up more space. This helped us to get a quick start on the development process while also staying under the limitations. Second, setting up a collaborative environment between VS Code and Github was initially quite challenging for us, but after some research, we were able to establish a collaborative work environment. Third, as we had many many ideas, we sometimes found it challenging to streamline ideas so all the focus was on the main task and not just the cool additional features.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of how we worked as a team to encourage each other to use this project as a learning opportunity, supporting each other through various challenges and creatively finding solutions to them. We are also very happy that we provided a solution to a problem our younger selves faced in high school, designing a website we had wished existed when we were organizing events for clubs.
What we learned
All of our teammates tried something completely new and challenged themselves to expand their knowledge in someway, experimenting with something we wanted to learn but never had the opportunity to before. Suhani, for example, learned Figma, Sinchana learned more about Github and VS Code, and shreya learned more about integrating designs into a website.
What's next for Waterlinks
For Waterlinks, the next goal is to support local charities to create local events/ volunteer postings and to encourage all, especially the youth to contribute to the cause of water-sustainability. In the long run, Waterlinks aims to provide access, education, and opportunity to all, especially students with limited or low access to educational resources, to help them become more aware of issues related to water sustainability that affect their peers and encourage them to make an impact.
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