GottaGo!

A mapping app to help individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) find available public bathrooms no matter where they are!

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Inspiration

We have several friends with IBS and related digestive issues, and they need to constantly take into account the location and accessibility of nearby restrooms whenever planning activities, should the need for their use arise. A centralized, user-friendly app designed to collect this information in one convenient location would do them wonders in improving their everyday lives.

What it does

GottaGo! is an app that locates the nearest bathrooms for anyone looking for a quick bathroom stop no matter where they are located, developed with the needs of those with IBS in mind.

How we built it

GottaGo! was built using the following technologies:

  • leaflet.js is a cartographic library for node.js, and was used as a primary technology for the rendering of maps, markers, and other navigation details
  • ReactJS is one of the biggest web development libraries to exist today, and is the foundation of a vast number of modern webapps and web development projects. It was used as the main library to create the application.
  • Domains.com is a registrar and hosting provider, and was used to obtain the domain name of https://gottago.tech.
  • Google Firebase is a popular hosting provider, used for innumerable projects, both amateur and professional, which we used to host and deploy the app.

Challenges we ran into

Neither of us have used React before or have much experience with web development technology. These presented a challenge due to the pivot from backend development to frontend technologies. We were able to overcome the challenges through perseverance, effort, and only a little bit of sleeplessness.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We as a team are proud of our willingness to learn new technologies and expand into areas of knowledge that neither of us were previously familiar with. Overcoming the difficulties of this paradigm shift took some grit, but we were rewarded for our efforts in the form of new horizons of development which we were able to interface with.

What we learned

We learned a lot about web development, web hosting, and mapping software throughout the development of this application. All of these technologies were new to us, and we enjoyed learning more about front-end development, as our personal expertise lies mostly in backend and data science.

What's next for GottaGo!

Next steps include integration of crowdsourced data, by adding the options for users to add reviews and one-to-five star ratings, as well as the ability to add and remove restrooms. We'd also like to add resources for users to educate themselves on IBS, and build discussion boards to encourage a safe space for conversation among IBS community patients and families.

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