Project Design Process with Qoom

Getting Started: Seeking a problem-

Finding a problem is similar to what songwriters feel when writing a song.  Songwriters tend to write what they're passionate about either from personal experience or from what they think others' perspective is. The same goes for finding a problem, think about anything you have struggled with or seen people struggle with. Make a list of all those struggles you have seen. After listing you should research each problem. See if the problem is already being addressed and how. Look for the people who will be impacted by your project.

Brainstorming a solution -

When brainstorming solutions, think of what you would like to have if you had that problem. You can also ask people who have that problem what kind of solution would help them. However, make sure that your idea is unique and if it isn’t, what additional features would make it unique. For example, there are many to-do list apps out there, but you might decide to make a to-do list app that also has a feature for assigning tasks to teammates. This will help it stand out from other apps and be more useful.

To help students keep track of their volunteer hours, we brainstormed a volunteer hours tracker so students can easily add their volunteer hours to a table. We decided that students would need to input the organization, tasks completed, date, entrance hour, and departure hour. We also decided to include a spot for uploading a signature and a canvas for an organizer to sign off on the volunteer hours. Originally, we also wanted to add features for finding volunteer opportunities and communicating with other volunteers, but we ended up deciding to simplify it to just the volunteer hours tracker since that is the most useful and unique feature.

Designing a Wireframe-

Wireframes are commonly used to lay out the content and functionality of the website. It gives you a clear idea of what you or your team is looking for. They’re immensely essential in the early development process since they serve as a guide when you start coding your project. Some popular websites that can help you create a wireframe are using Figma, Canva, and Invision Studio.

A big issue you should consider is not overdoing your wireframe. What we mean by that is to cut down to only 1 or 2 features. Doing wireframes is way easier than coding the project. For example, if you’re competing on a hackathon and overdid your wireframe, there’s a high chance you will not be able to complete everything. This concept is known as identifying your MVP (Minimum Viable Product). MVP is a development technique in which a product is introduced with basic features, but enough to get the attention of the consumers. You can identify your MVP by reanalyzing your problem and thinking about what feature will best solve your problem.

Using Qoom’s Database system -

A database is a structure that holds, you guessed it, data. Qoom has both an account database that you have to log in to use and an open database that anyone can access. Since volunteer hours belong to only one person, we used an account database to connect the volunteer hours to the user. In our database, we stored the organization, tasks completed, date, entrance hour, departure hour, signature, and certificate from the form that the user would fill out. We displayed the user’s data in a table and added buttons for editing and deleting hours. There were some difficulties in displaying thumbnails for the signature and certificate as well as editing and deleting hours since we were unfamiliar with Qoom’s database system but we were able to solve them with help. When using a database system or other framework that you are not familiar with, try to ask others for help or research online for solutions to your problem.

Amelia and Grace built a volunteer hour management system, Volunteerly. Check this link! https://shrillcalf71.qoom.space/~/Volunteerly/index