Inspiration
No one can predict when they might go through panic attacks, bouts of anxiety and mood changes. It’s important for people to have the ability to contact individuals who can help them talk through these events. SafeSignal aims to empower users ("Signalers") to send signals on a real-time map alerting other users ("Responders") that they are in distress. I was inspired by Talkspace and was excited that these types of services exist today.
What it does
Allow users who are are experiencing distress (i.e. aftermath of a panic attack, anxiety, a depressed state of mind) to view a map interface and see active Responders they can contact. There is a relationship between two types of users, "Signalers" and "Responders". The Signalers have the option of manually contacting active Responders on the map, or sending out a global signal that notifies every active Responder. Once a connection is made, it is up to the signaler to select they would like to connect - video or chat. This is when the real-time messaging and chat services of Agora.io come in. At that point, communication is underway and both have to option to drop the communication and return to their respective dashboards.
How I built it
The web app is not complete, but I was in the process of completing the routing and the authentication. I built it using ReactJS to render the UI and Google Firebase for authentication. Firebase served as my BaaS (Backend as a Service). But these blockers took most of my time.
Challenges I ran into
Some of the challenges I faced were the Authentication and React Router. These were the steps I wanted to get down before I brought in Agora.io. I was having trouble redirecting a logged in user to the the Dashboard.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I was able to get my "Sign in with Google" button working. And render some UI to the screen with React.
What I learned
To sketch out the implementation and/or list of components I plan to code. Learning to consider certain edge cases or limitations that come with using APIs or other technologies that I've never used before. Lastly, understanding that it's okay to pivot and switch ideas - sticking to just one course of action held me back and I didn't have a backup plan. I should've had multiple ideas and explored their feasibility early on.
What's next for SendSignal
Finishing the project, which includes getting Authentication and Routing down. Also bringing Agora.io services and determining which Map API I want to use. Ultimately I want to gather feedback, continue with iterations, and scale effectively.
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