Inspiration
Our inspiration for this project, as students, was that often volunteer opportunities can be hard to find. Especially at a demanding school, we don't want to have to do the research to find quality opportunities. So our application provides the ability for volunteers to easily find opportunities.
What it does
The goal of Guild is to provide an easy and effective platform for volunteers to connect to those who need them. Users can look for volunteer opportunities, and ask for volunteers to complete a certain task. They can join guilds, which are groups of volunteers with a common purpose like improving the community garden or decorating the library. Guilds are a way for users to find opportunities and connect with fellow volunteers. Each guild also has a guildling, which is a virtual pet that offers encouragement. Guild also has an array of gamification features to incentivize people to get involved in their communities. Once a user completes a task and their work is verified by the person who requested help, Guild rewards the users with geld and XP. Geld is the in-app currency of Guild, which can be used to buy cosmetics in the Store.
How we built it
Using HTML and CSS we created the basic skeleton of this website, and using Bootstrap we were able to add neat UI elements. JavaScript was also useful in adding functionality like a timer to the website.
Challenges we ran into
We don't have access to a database with which to record account information, and as a result we had to exclusively create sample pages, Guilds, and tasks.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the look and feel of the website, and that we accomplished as much as we have. We think that if this idea was fully fleshed out it could be a useful free tool for communities across the world to use in order to develop.
What we learned
Personally I (Torin) learned a lot about JavaScript, since I walked into the hackathon without knowing and JS. We also learned how to use Bootstrap.
What's next for Guild
We plan to use a database to store user information such as usernames, passwords, task lists, amount of geld, etc. We also plan to add location and map features allowing users to add a location for a volunteering task. Finally, we have ideas for how to use guildlings to motivate users. In addition to being cute and encouraging mascots, guildlings would grow and evolve as members of the guild completed tasks, such that the growth of the guildling would symbolize the growth of the community.
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