Zot n Thrift

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Inspiration

We were inspired by the looming move-out date that haunts all current UCI dorming freshmen. We realized that we will no longer need dorm essentials as we are moving into different housing situations, so we are willing to hand them off to incoming freshmen! Since some of us will be moving into UCI student apartments/townhomes, we are in search of items to furnish our future homes from current UCI students that are willing to sell. We hope to help college students shopping on a budget, and also to make the experience less time-consuming. Making students feel comfortable in their homes and ensuring they have their necessities served as the motivation behind our project.

What it does

Users are able to upload listings for products they want to sell, and also search and receive results for products they would like to purchase. Zot n Thrift is specific to UCI students, making it easier for students to find sellers for products they need, and to find buyers for products they want to sell.

How we built it

We had an in-depth collaborative planning process to ensure all team members' visions were being executed, and implemented effective coding practices such as pair programming and utilizing Git.

Challenges we ran into

All team members walked into VenusHacks with minimal or no experience with full-stack development, so we had many questions regarding combining front-end and back-end development. We had a "learn as you go" experience with Zot n Thrift and overcame difficulties by utilizing the learning resources and wonderful mentorship offered at VenusHacks.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are extremely proud of having a functioning full-stack website as beginners! All team members agree that we have gained considerable knowledge from attempting such a big project as web development beginners. Although we could have chosen a project more familiar to us, we decided to push ourselves and try something out of our comfort zone. We are proud of ourselves for handling difficulties with grace, communicating and collaborating successfully, and not being afraid to utilize our resources and ask mentors for guidance.

What we learned

We have gained a considerable amount of skills and knowledge from attending workshops and from our own trial and error with Zot n Thrift. Our team has gained experience in product and UI/UX Design, SQL, web development, merging Git branches and resolving conflicts, connecting front-end to back-end, using Tailwind to navigate front-end tasks and implementing soft skills like adaptability and problem solving. We learned how important it is to work in a team as we utilized our different strengths to accomplish the final product.