Ladder

Inspiration

Ladder was inspired from an idea that opportunites are valuable only if we know they exist. As students, we often miss out on critical chances that would make us build skills and grow networks simply because we aren’t aware of them. That’s why we came up with Ladder: to make these opportunities accesible for every student. It’s more than just an app; it’s a tool to help achieve your goals.

What it does

Ladder is a student-networking app designed to centralize all campus-related events, extracurricular activities and academic opportunities in a single, easy-to-navigate platform. Users will be able to post and manage their own events or search for existing ones at their own college/university, as well as explore opportunities at other institutions. Our dynamic newsfeed allow students to browse events using hashtags and filters based on genre, school, or academic focus. Each user has a personal profile showcasing their academic and extracurricular information, skills, projects, and more. Users can add friends (called "Ladders"), making it easy to stay connected with like-minded peers or mentors. Ladder also features a built-in chat system, so that users can communicate directly with their connections.

How we built it

We began by designing the User Interface using Figma. We researched theme colors, icons, and layout to ensure a user-friendly and visually appealing experience. In terms of software development, we use SwiftUI & Foundation as front-end framework and FireBase as back-end. To manage core functionalities, we use FireBase APIs: FirebaseAuth: For secure user authentication, FirebaseStorage: To handle image uploading and storage. For efficient image data caching and management, we used KingFisher.

Challenges we ran into

In our app, the MainTabView uses a NavigationStack, but managing navigation was challenging due to its complex multi-layered structure. For instance, FeedView transitions to ProfileView, which then navigates to ChatView. Initially, using a NavigationStack within ProfileView caused issues with nested stacks. The solution was to manage all navigationDestination declarations in the root view, ensuring a seamless and powerful navigation structure.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We developed a well-structured authentication module by clearly defining the roles of each class. This approach ensures code separation, organized logic, and makes the system highly maintainable for future updates or feature expansions.

What we learned

Collaboration, Communication, Application workflow and Architectural Design, FireBase, IOS App Development, APIs

What's next for Ladder

We plan to add more features to enhance the user experience and functionality of the app. Our next step is to begin testing at OCC, gather feedback, and refine the platform based on user insights. Once we’ve established a solid user base, we aim to expand Ladder to other campuses so that more students can benefit from the opportunities it provides.

Built With

• figma
• firebase
• firebaseauth
• firebasefirestore
• firebasestorage
• foundationdb
• kingfisher
• swift