About NYC BoroughBook
Introducing NYC BoroughBook – an innovative web application that safeguards the heart of New York City. A platform inspired by The New York Times' intricate neighborhood map, NYC BoroughBook weaves together untold stories, historical landmarks, and hidden gems across every borough, powered by MongoDB and Leaflet’s library. NYC BoroughBook is focused on preserving the cultural and historical importance of our neighborhoods. As gentrification continues to threaten the collective culture of New York City, NYC BoroughBook is an invitation to explore, engage, and contribute to the living narrative of this beautiful city.
What it does
NYC BoroughBook provides users with the opportunity to share their NYC-related stories, by selecting specific boroughs, dropping pins to report neighborhood news mark spots where history was made, and uncover the hidden treasures that make NYC truly unique.
How we built it
Fueled by the robust capabilities of MongoDB, Firebase, Leaflet’s library, and React, NYC BoroughBook was constructed by a team of two backend developers and two frontend developers. We used Firebase to authenticate users to ensure only registered/logged in users could post on our website. We used MongoDB to keep track of all the pins/markers created.
Challenges we ran into
When developing this web application, we ran into multiple issues as none of us had experience in React. However, we wanted to challenge ourselves and decided to try something new. Additionally, it was all of our's first time working with the library Leaflet, which posed significant challenges as the learning curve was steep. Specifically, we struggle to figure out how to modify the simple documentation about creating markers to fit our needs in which users entered information and the subsequent marker then appeared.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that we all learned how to work in React for the first time. Additionally, we're proud to have become proficient in a new library today.
What we learned
Through this Hackathon, we were able to become more comfortable with frontend-web development using React. We also got to collaborate as designers and developers to create something that is intuitive and user-friendly.
What's next for NYC BoroughBook
We would build out the photo upload feature so that residents can include pictures of their past, adding an additional layer of history to the posts. Additionally, we would like to add additional interactive features, such as a commenting and liking feature, to further encourage forming community. Further down the line, we would love to conduct user testing with this product to ensure it is an enjoyable user experience.
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