Planet Warrior

Planet Warrior aims to create a future in which nature’s wild heart still beats strong through healthy wildlife and magnificent landscapes while our cities are strengthened by harmony with nature.

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Inspiration

We live in a world where human impact is a constant threat to our environment and biodiversity. We see these things being widely ignored across the globe, and this is creating unforeseen impacts on entire ecosystems. However, we don’t have to accept a fate of gloom and doom for the planet. As individuals that are passionate for the environment and have a desire to make a difference, we are taking matters into our own hands by leading the charge in improving the environment through our application, Planet Warrior.

What it does

Planet Warrior is a platform that uses creativity to inspire people of all ages to help clean up the planet. Anyone can create an account and start discovering tasks/projects in their immediate area that could benefit the environment, whether picking up trash or planting trees. For each task that is completed, the user receives points that will go towards unlocking badges and leveling up their status with the ultimate goal of gaining the status of Captain Planet. Individuals who achieve this status are recognized for their tremendous impact in saving the planet from pollution.

How we built it

We created this application using a Ruby on Rails API backend with a React Frontend. The Rails backend is connected to a PostgreSQL database, so data can be stored and fetched when needed. All API paths/routes are handled by the Rails backend which we deployed to Heroku for hosting. In our frontend, we used routes to create a multi page application that give users the ability to create an account and access our Google Map API for locating various tasks/projects in Portland, Oregon. We also implemented authentication and authorization using JSON Web Tokens so that users can access our platform securely.

Challenges we ran into

  1. When we were brainstorming, we came up with a lot of great ideas, but had trouble narrowing them down. Ultimately, we had to agree to take things out and figure out the scope of the project so we had somewhere to start
  2. Breaking down big problems into smaller manageable chunks and defining scope for the project
  3. We didn’t fully consider UX from the start of the project so had to modify previous ideas to implement different functionality of the app

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. We implemented a design that we were all proud of so that users of our applications could have an easy way of maneuvering our site and accessing different features
  2. Developed an efficient signup, login, and logout experience
  3. Implemented JSON Web Tokens so that our application has authentication and authorization to confirm user identity and allowing those specific users to access the system

What we learned

In the process of creating this application, we learned several new React UI frameworks and technologies including Material UI and Chakra UI. We also learned new graphic design platforms in Canva and Vecteezy to efficiently create and implement designs in our project. These tools were very helpful in our journey of creating a very user friendly application.

What's next for Planet Warrior

We plan to build out more features of our application including filters, search bars, progress bars, etc. and ultimately deploy the application to the Web. After doing so, we want to promote our platform to users interested in volunteering, so that we have an active volunteer base that is making a difference in neighborhoods around the world. Lastly, we will pitch our idea to leadership groups/sponsors so that we can expand our network and create a bigger impact.

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