Spaces

Need a space on campus to study, have fun, or hold a meeting? Try Spaces! Discover the best spots at UWaterloo, shared by peers, complete with details on capacity, charger availability and more!

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Inspiration

As students, we understand that finding a space on campus for daily activities can be difficult. With our development skills and a deep understanding of the student experience, we aimed to create a solution that simplifies this process for all.

What it does

Spaces is a web app designed to simplify the process of finding and sharing locations on campus. By leveraging technology and user contributions, Spaces provides detailed descriptions and tailored recommendations for various campus activities — making campus easy and enjoyable.

How we built it

Frontend:

  • HTML/CSS
  • JavaScript

Backend:

  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • Mongoose
  • MongoDB

Challenges we ran into

Centering divs will never not be a problem haha. Moreover, getting the Space postings to wrap around and scroll properly took a lot of effort to style and construct. Features such as the AI search bar and details page also took quite a while to style and make pretty. We also encountered issues with images, which intermittently stopped displaying due to incorrect file paths and caching problems, requiring extensive debugging. Additionally, our database kept messing up, leading to data inconsistencies and unexpected crashes, which required us to revisit our data models and optimize our queries.

What we learned

Through this project, we learned the importance of collaboration and the value of user feedback in the development process. Working on both the front-end and back-end broadened our technical skills, particularly in responsive design and database management. Additionally, we learned to adapt our initial ideas based on technical constraints and user input, enhancing our problem-solving and project management skills.

What's next for Spaces

Looking ahead, we plan to expand Spaces to include more features, such as real-time availability updates, integration with campus maps, and a mobile app version. We also aim to incorporate user reviews and ratings to enhance the quality and reliability of space recommendations. Our ultimate goal is to create a seamless and indispensable tool for students across various campuses.

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