ReFroggers

Struggling to understand recycling? Want to introduce your kids to sustainibility? ReFroggers does so in a fun, fresh, froggy way!

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Inspiration

We have a passionate love for all things frog and for the Earth. Encouraging people, especially children who might not have prior education in this subject, to engage in sustainable behavior some froggy rewards led us to build ReFroggers! We drew inspiration from retro games, hence the font choice and art style.

What it does

ReFroggers rewards users' sustainable actions with Frogecoin. On any bin, scan the ReFroggers QR code to know what material it accepts. Bins can range from compost to recycle, and Frogecoin will be awarded by how sustainable and impactful that action is! Frogecoin is a full-trust, decentralized, ledger-based cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for ecofrog companions that will customize the app in fun ways.

How we built it

We first created mockups of the app with Figma. We chose React Native as our framework as we wanted a friendly mobile app that works with both iOS and Android. Our screens were created in TypeScript, and images were hand drawn by our designer in FireAlpaca.

Challenges we ran into

For some of us, it was our first time using React Native and doing frontend development, so getting up to speed with the program flow was difficult. Also state management took a lot of time to figure out. At first, it was simple with just a few variables to keep track of. As we kept adding features, it became more and more difficult to manage everything. It was definitely a learning curve, but we're proud of how we were able to expand our skill set and learn a new technology!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our code works and runs!! We think our app is super cute and we're glad we were able to make something that is both impactful and visually appealing.

What we learned

We learned a new technology and understood the app development process for React and mobile-dev in more depth. We also learned how important state management is for iterative development.

We discovered that peer programming is extremely helpful with speeding up development since you can have constant feedback and answers to questions quickly. Our developers had different coding backgrounds so each person can provide a new perspective.

Most importantly, frogs make everything better 🐸🐸

What's next for ReFroggers

We have a few things we'd love to further explore:

  • Using ML to scan pictures of what is dropped off at bins to automatically award Frogecoin
  • A map that shows where nearby bins are and what they accept
  • Search function that looks up what kind of plastic an item is (i.e. pringles can)
  • Expand QR code to other environmental venues: gardening, community workshops, or even exploring nature! We want to incentivize all types of learning about the local ecosystem and how to sustain it
  • Interacting with friends! Sharing your frog and doing sustainability activities together!!

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