Our irreplaceable bonds bring us refuge in the most turbulent times. Dipole arose out of the quintessential human wish to connect with others. Our team was no exception. One of the things we missed the most were those simple connections that blossomed into rich and rewarding friendships from just a shared common interest.
Dipole bridges the gap and invites the user to connect with their future best friends, gaming buddies, running pals, or tennis partners. Through the power of the cloud our application users are able to identify their interests along with basic information. Utilizing common interest users are then matched with others with like minded interests. After matching, users can then chat back and forth in order to see what else they have in common. After chatting for a while users are able to create plans with each other to meet up in their city.
Our application is built upon a solid foundation of the React-Redux-Typescript combination. React’s ease of use, prevalence, and capability makes it a must have for our project. On top of React, we’ve also included Redux and Typescript to really set the stage for an easily and highly scalable future.
Overall, our current iteration is a beautifully designed and functional application that is built for the web, accessible using any modern device. We know that being able to reach a wide audience is paramount to our success, so we’ve woven accessibility and user-centered design into every facet of our work. // give examples if possible or remove, thanks!
Our backend stack is based on a Node.JS and Apollo server which provides a GraphQL API layer to our client. We’re using a MongoDB instance hosted in the cloud, which provides for all of our application’s database needs
In only 24 hours, we were tasked with creating a web application to improve and enhance remote and socially distance hands-on learning for students.
| Stack | Technology Used |
|---|---|
| Front-End | React, Material, Figma, Typescript, SCSS |
| Back-End | Google Firebase, Node.js, Apollo |
| Cloud/Hosting | Firebase OAuth, Google Cloud, Docker |
| Database | Google Firestore, MongoDB |
| Querying | GraphQL |
When developing Dipole we opted to utilize a more complex backend which included
- Figuring out the data model of our app
- Integrating certain technologies with very little documentation
- First time developing the full stack of an application
Built 2 databases, wow!
- Created a very great looking design (thanks Risat)
- Were able to tackle a very fundamental need
- Being able to keep ploughing through even in the face of difficult bugs
- This is the most cloud-native application we’ve built
Through the process of developing Dipole for Hack the North we learned many skills that will help our team as we work on other projects in the future whether it be in our studies or another hackathon.
- Prioritization of features that directly correlate to judging outcomes
- Git and project management skills in a fast pace team environment
- Debugging web apps using the inspector and setting breakpoints and watches
- Utilizing free and premium services with additional perks. For example, a Plus and Platinum tier which could give users access to additional match-making features, re-matching and heat-map integration.
- Increasing profile visibility for users.
- Sponsor pages/adverts for adventures around your area
- Strategic partnerships with certain hobby-related manufacturers
- Exclusive early phase with referral-only, influencer advertising
- Target certain demographics & adapt to environments such as universities, workplaces and other communities (eg. a condo building, city/town, certain demographics)
- Deploying & building a web app allows for extensive A/B testing of users with respect to new features & monetization strategies
- Scalable backend technologies provide “just enough” throughput in order to scale technology needed - to the size of the user base.
- Lightweight, nimble operating team requires very little starting capital, but can scale up very efficiently very quickly.
- Cuts away at the superficiality of dating apps with no pictures mode. Encourages people to have genuine conversations without pretension.
- Allows you to quickly match and find the next event to attend together
- Planned heat map feature for community events
- Ability to partner with local businesses to support hobbyists
As we further develop Dipole we hope to improve on some current implementations and develop additional features:
- Determinate market conditions in order to bring Dipole to market at scale
- Integrate all backend functions into a single database with redundancy
- Design desktop centred user interface components
- Identify a growth target and plan
- Migrate to Google Cloud Functions