Inspiration
During this long pandemic period, our lifestyles have met massive disruptions. Fitness centers, sports programs, and many physical activities were shut down. We were forced to stay at home. With limited physical activities, our mental and physical health were greatly impacted by this change. Health problems such as obesity, depression, and anxiety dramatically increased during this time.
What it does
Users of Fit.Me can specify a location, activity, time, and other information and post that information to a public forum where others may view their event posting. Through this system, individuals can connect with others looking to restore their physical routines and take action to improve their physical and mental wellbeing.
How we built it
For the frontend, we used React to create the interactive components, such as the navbar and event display. As well, we used SASS as our CSS pre-processor to improve the organization of our code. For our backend, we used Express.js to manage database requests to MongoDB Atlas to store and get user/event data.
Challenges we ran into
One of the challenges we initially ran into was connecting our frontend to our backend. This project was the first time we had integrated a client with a server, so we had some difficulties with managing the connection. As well, we had difficulty working with CSS, as it was the first time any of us had used a preprocessor and our stylings would often conflict, as we separated lots of our SCSS files into modules. Finally, the difference in our time zones had an impact on our productivity, as not all members would be at 100% at the same time.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
During UofTHacks IX, our team has accomplished many things that we are proud of. We prototyped and created a functional and practical web application from scratch in just 36 hours while learning and adapting to new technologies that many of us had not used before.
What we learned
Throughout the development of Fit.Me, we encountered many difficulties but each roadblock we faced was followed by lessons that will be applicable for our entire careers. For many of us, Fit.Me was our first collaborative product created for a Hackathon. We had to learn how to work with each other and effectively collaborate by supporting each other's strengths and covering for each other's weaknesses. Additionally, we also learned how to work under a time constraint, planning and organizing each step of our software development. Furthermore, we have developed both our frontend and backend technical skills by creating not just a project, but a product. Requests, CSS animations, UI design, and learning new technologies were just some of the many technical skills that were learned throughout our experience. Finally, perhaps the most important thing that we learned was using our how to apply our skills to solve real-life problems.
What's next for Fit.Me
As we continue with the development with Fit.Me, we plan to integrate more user customization features, such as a location option, activity preferences, and user profile pictures. As well, we aim to simplify communication between users by integrating an opt-in system to post events and standardizing user inputs for event postings.
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