Careers in Code Capstone Projects: Design & Development Phase PART 2
As part of our Careers in Code program, participants are required to work towards their capstone project, which is a full-stack (front-end, back-end, database) application that they build throughout the 24 weeks of the coding bootcamp. Students shared their ideas in our Ideation Phase blog post here and first updates here. Read below for the latest on how the projects are going.
KARIN
Project: Archery score-keeper app.
Karin continued to work on revamping her project visually with newer icons, and did the work to ensure all buttons work and lead to the right pages. She also decided that instead of a Settings page, she will use a drop-down menu to get users where they need to go. On the backend, she got her server up and running. Stay tuned for a new blog post from her documenting the process.
ANNA
Project: An app that helps college students map out required courses for their majors.
Anna shared her project in the ideation phase, an app that would help college students better plan their path to graduation, inspired by her university experience. It was a grand idea, but ultimately too large an undertaking to complete before graduation, so she has scaled back on the project and has been working on adjusting to a smaller time frame. She has her new database all drawn out and will now use React and Node.js to create the front end.
KELLY
Project: A resource for people who have sensory-processing issues and would like information about potential sights, smells, sounds, etc. in the community.
Lots of updates on this project! In the last couple weeks, Kelly has rebuilt her app from the ground up. She connected React and Express with Concurrently so she can use them together with one commanu, created a hamburger menu with working links using React Router, created basic API calls for all the pages so that they’re wired to the backend, and decided to use Grommet for UI. Now, she will work on setting up authorization using a third-party provider, set up the back end with Sequelize, build data models, set up a server, and work on creating more API calls so users can create/edit/delete reviews. Kelly also wants to implement a thumbs up/thumbs down rating system. As for the Twitter feed she wanted to integrate, that may come in a future version of her product after Careers in Code.
KAITLYN
Project: Cuse Connect, an easier-to-navigate City of Syracuse website that has a more pleasurable user experience.
Since we last heard from Kaitlyn, she got her links and buttons to work, and implemented the main feature of the Google API map so people can see specific information for their neighborhood like trash pickup, etc. The design is very basic and not overly busy, which she likes, and is more user-friendly than the current City of Syracuse website. Kaitlyn also met with the city’s Chief Data Officer, Sam Edelstein, who likes her project and provided lots of great advice. Coming up, she will connect the back end and continue working on design.
DAKIR
Project: A visually pleasing online gallery with interactive elements.
This past week, Dakir experimented with his HTML, React, and different technologies to see what he liked best. With the help of instructor Gus, he got his server up and running and secured the domain canvasyourhome.art. Ever the perfectionist, he recognizes his need for wanting a full, amazing website immediately, so he’s reminding himself that it’s a process and to build slowly. Currently, he’s working on two ways of planning: one from the client side (the artist whose art he will be exhibiting on the site), and one from the visual standpoint of what things will look like on the page. Now, he’ll revisit React and JavaScript tutorials in order to build the site.
ELIZABETH
Project: Migraine data tracker
When we last caught up with Elizabeth, she was still in the ideation phase of the project without an official focus. We’re happy to report her project is now in motion, which will be a migraine data tracker in which users can log headache data and related information that can be stored and reviewed for analysis. This will include the ability to log entries like food, sleep, and other helpful tidbits. Ideally, the app would include barometric pressure predictions (which can trigger headaches for some folks), but many APIs that track the weather don’t offer future information, so she may have to scale that idea back for now. As we speak, she is working on the code, creating her database by hand as she settles on a database tool, and using the Sketch Wireframing Kit to create a mockup of her site.
KATE
Project: An app (similar to a dating app) for potential adopters to find adoptable dogs in their area.
This time around Kate has a name for her app — Pup Ups! The quiz she began working on in the last update is now functional, asking questions like “How would you survive a zombie apocalypse?” and “Where would you travel if you could travel through time?” Answers will eventually connect users to a dog, once she connects shelter content to the website to display the dogs’ pages. Her next steps are to connect to the database, get the signup page in working order, recreate the HTML/CSS she started with (as her original code does not work with React), and giving the app a beautifying update.
TIM
Project: An e-commerce site that helps customers compare prices on men’s and women’s clothing and accessories.
Tim has reorganized and restructured his whole app, Closet Concierge, using Bootstrap Studio, which he likes for the ease of use. The site now has a couple of menus for the home page, men’s clothing, and women’s clothing, and the basic layout awaits text that shares what the website is and what it can do. There is also a new section for brands that users can search alphabetically and by gender. To get the product information on upcoming individual product pages, Tim is practicing with Cheerio, Puppeteer, and Axio for web scraping.
EVA
Project: A resource that provides immediate household help for chores that can’t wait.
Eva ran into the same problem as Kate this past week, having to recreate her code because the original HTML/CSS didn’t work in React. As she takes this on, she is still navigating React, but has her home page components up and running and buttons working!
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If you’d like to hear from the students themselves about their projects, check out our livestream of the session on YouTube below, starting around 18 minutes. All of our classes are livestreamed Monday through Thursday here.
