Links to the previous & later posts on the Memorado #hackweek15:
Day 1: https://goo.gl/x0xlKU
Day 3: https://goo.gl/hQXwjq
And we are hiring: https://jobs.lever.co/memorado
We met at 9 am on Tuesday and started coding to reach our goal:
Make 4 apps in 4 teams in 4 days
that help refugees in their daily life
And here is where we stand and what we learned after Day 2:
Team “Refoodgee”
Mission: Connecting refugees and helpers sharing a meal as a first connection
- Created clickable prototype and defined architecture of the app
- Worked on communication and on-boarding to make concept clearer
- Started with a storyline for an intro video for the appstore
- Decided to use Parse for quickly building a backend to exchange data
- UI design and color scheme defined and started styling first screens
Key learning: Really go down to absolute minimum requirements and cut off anything that is not 100% needed
Team “WelcomeGuide”
Mission: Create a dynamic refugee welcome guide on both platforms
- Structured the content of the pdf welcome guide into categories, cities and languages
- Got a first build of the app running on Android and iOS devices using Xamarin’s cross-platform technology
- Deployed a first version of the admin backend for the help coordinators to keep the content up to date and upload additional information. Leveraging RailsAdmin for a simple interface, Grape for rapid & scalable API development and Heroku for hosting to have first version up and running in very little time
Key learning: Cross-platform technologies have come a long way and are a solid option for apps with very simple UI, whilst they still don’t seem like the best option for apps requiring custom UI.
Team “Alles Klar”
Mission: connect German speakers with refugees that need translation help
- Reviewed initial concept of matching time/date availabilities and decided that it’s too large for 2.5 days
- Cut down concept to entering refugee’s requests and showing requests for help
- Introduced onboarding for helpers to sign-up and create profile using facebook log-in & Parse as an out of the box backend
- Decided on and created UI (logo, branding)
Key learning 1: Feedback culture is super important as it prevents the problems before they arise
Key learning 2: Planning should be as detailed as possible, otherwise miscommunication between Design and Dev is bound to happen
Team “GoGive”
Mission: Leverage user’s location to show places close by for donating clothes and other support equipment
- Created first draft of app and set up all views
- Developed a simple backend using NodeJS with Bootstrap running on Heroku to allow helpcenters to sign up and enter what they need
- Assembled content for first 30 help centers in Berlin as a start and to showcase the functionality
- Browsed list of needed items and categorized them to implement a tagging system
Key learning: Search is really hard. You need to standardize search items, no free text.
We are looking forward to Day 3!
