Equal Voices

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  Equal Voices

Figma Prototype | Source Code: GitHub | Demo: APK

Inspiration

Our Vision is to give people a platform to speak their minds about events that affect us as a community, irrespective of background.

There are several examples of structural injustices becoming commonplace, let alone being overlooked - for example, the Untouchables that lasted until India gained independence and the systemic racism of Black and Latino populations in the US that is ongoing today. We disassociate with these horrific events because it seems so far away from us - and those affected by these events oftentimes suffer silently.

The first step towards tackling a problem is to talk about it - to gather and engage those who are affected by that problem, to generate awareness about the problem, and brainstorm about how to approach it.

This app is also a platform to share untold stories. Many avoid seeking help from Mental Health professionals due to the stigma surrounding it. With more and more voices sounding in support and sharing their experiences, the more comfortable they would be in their own skin.

What it does

This app can help bridge the gap between communities. It is a way to bring those from vulnerable minorities into the conversation. It is a great opportunity to see a story from a different perspective.

• Sign Up/ Sign In
• Home page with a user profile, notifications
• Chat History that shows recent chat rooms and texts
• Discovery to find new Chat Rooms using topic tags, filter out potentially triggering material using content warning tags, and additional tags to optimize search results

How we built it

For the front end, we used:

• Figma
• Unsplash
• Feather icons
• Iconify
• LottieFiles

The app logo was created using FireAlpaca

For the back end, we used:

• Kotlin
• Android Studio
• Firebase

What we learned

In the past 36 hours, we took a wireframe from a Prototype to a Minimum Viable Product. Here's what each of us learned a new

Aditi

• Create UI designs using Figma
• Learned about the Unsplash plugin

Ajeet

• I have stretched myself to build a complete working app in just one day for the first time.
• Learned to bring the Figma designs to reality.
• Used the latest jetpack compose components in the complete app.

Akshara

• How to edit an app demo video
• Create UI designs using Figma

Akshaya

• Created an app interface for the first time in Figma
• Utilized Figma’s prototyping tool to create animations
• Helped create a schematic for storage in a database via Firebase

What’s next for Equal Voices

A few things that we have in mind:

• Get in touch with people who are concerned about the same issues as you via a randomly matched person in a one to one chat
• If a chatroom hasn’t been created by an admin yet, the user may send a request for it to be prioritized
• Have extra security by enabling 2FA via phone verification
• An admin panel to enhance content management

Built With

• android-studio
• figma
• firebase
• kotlin