Inspiration
Bettr was inspired by the desire to harness the power of social media for social good. We recognized that people are motivated by recognition and competition, and we wanted to create a platform where these drives could be channeled into positive community impact. By gamifying the experience of doing good, Bettr encourages more people to engage in acts of kindness and charity every day.
What it does
Bettr is a mobile app that encourages users to perform and share acts of kindness and social good. Users post pictures of their good deeds and receive points which help them climb up leaderboards and earn badges. This system not only rewards users but also fosters a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to making the world a better place.
How we built it
We built Bettr using a tech stack that includes React Native for a seamless, cross-platform mobile experience, Node.js and Express for backend operations, and MongoDB for real-time data storage and authentication. This combination allows us to manage a large user base and ensures that our app is both scalable and responsive.
Challenges Encountered
Package Conflicts: One of the significant challenges we faced was related to package dependencies. During the project development, multiple instances of package clashes occurred. These conflicts often led to incompatible versions that disrupted the development workflow and required us to spend considerable time resolving these issues.
Merge Conflicts: As with many team projects, merge conflicts in our codebase were a frequent challenge. Coordinating changes across multiple branches in our version control system sometimes led to significant setbacks. Managing these merge conflicts required careful attention to detail and coordination among team members, which was both time-consuming and at times, complex.
Networking Issues with React Native: A particular technical challenge was React Native’s limited support for HTTP communication. Our project required interacting with backend services over HTTP, but due to security and configuration limitations, this was not directly feasible.
Utilizing Ngrok for HTTPS Tunneling: To overcome the networking issues, we opted to use Ngrok, a service that creates a secure HTTPS tunnel to our local development server. This solution allowed us to expose our local server to the internet securely and was crucial for enabling our mobile front-end in React Native to communicate effectively with our backend services. However, setting up and managing this tunnel added an additional layer of complexity to our setup.
Accomplishments We're Proud Of
Successful MERN Stack Implementation: One of our most significant achievements during this hackathon was our successful implementation of the MERN stack—MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. For all of us, it was our first experience using these technologies in a project. Despite facing numerous challenges and a steep learning curve, we not only managed to build our application but also gained a profound understanding and appreciation of this powerful technology stack.
Overcoming Inexperience: We're particularly proud of our perseverance and resilience. Each team member started with little to no experience in the technologies we used. However, through dedicated teamwork and relentless problem-solving, we transformed our lack of experience into a depth of knowledge and skills that propelled our project to successful completion.
Development of a Scalable Infrastructure: We are thrilled with the robustness and scalability of the application infrastructure we've constructed. It was exhilarating to design and implement a system capable of handling a growing user base and increasing data volumes. This accomplishment not only tested our abilities to develop scalable applications but also gave us confidence in our capability to handle real-world software engineering challenges.
The Final Product: Seeing our application come to life and perform as intended was incredibly rewarding. The positive feedback from other hackers who we showed it to and the interest it has generated has been affirming, confirming the practicality and impact of our hard work.
What we learned
Other than the technical skills that we gained throughout HACKKU - throughout the development of Bettr, we learned a great deal about user behavior, motivational psychology, and the technical aspects of app development in a real-world project. We also gained insights into the importance of community feedback in shaping product features and user experience.
What's next for Bettr
Looking ahead, we plan to introduce more personalized features, such as custom challenges and rewards tailored to users' interests and past activities. We're also exploring partnerships with NGOs and other social impact organizations to expand our reach and amplify our collective impact. Long-term, we aim to make Bettr a global platform that not only encourages individual acts of kindness but also facilitates large-scale social change.
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