This applicaiton will be a tool to connect people. The people we want to connect are in two categories, the Donors and the Recepients. Donors are the ones who have goods or rescources they are willing to give to anyone who needs them for free. The Recipients are the ones who need some help and they want the goods and services provided by Donors. There are many apps that connect people, but none that focus so heavily on helping the community and donating time to help your fellow neighbors. The effects of this application could be an increased awareness in the deficiencies in neighborhoods as well as increasing public service.
- Go to Releases and download the latest release.
- A popup notifying you of an unknown app will show.
- Click on "Settings"
- Flick the switch
- Navigate backwards to view the following screen.
- Click "Install"
- Click "INSTALL ANYWAY"
- You can now run the app by launching it like normal.
Follow this project board to know the latest status of the project: https://trello.com/b/AAawZWti/howcanihelp
Prerequisites:
- Download and Install Android Studio
- Install Git
- Use this github repository: https://github.com/cis3296s22/howcanihelp
- Clone the repository.
- Open the cloned directory in Android Studio.
- Click the hammer icon at the top.
FOR most of the individuals WHO would be able operate basic mobile applications and are in need of help to meet their needs or require small services, THE How Can I Help is an android mobile application THAT provides the connection and communication between people by matching the requests and availability of recipients and donors respectively. UNLIKE the other applications or services that concentrate on other specific elements like food or dating, OUR product provides this service on a broader aspect of personal day to day needs at a moderate cost.
Smith, age 67, a retired factory line worker. He lives with his wife, age 66. They live in a townhouse in a suburb. Both of them did not have college education but finished their high school and worked in factory related jobs from then. They could handle technology to manage all their needs for life. Smith is always active, able to do all the work at home despite his age. But he fell sick and didn't have much energy for some time to finish the work. The grass in the lawn is ready to be cut. So, they are looking for someone who could lend help to cut the grass in the lawn this time. They are ready to pay for the help but do not know who to contact for this but just need some domestic, personal help and do not want to contact big parties for that work. Him being a recipient, wanted to check the option in the app where he wants to have an option where he could mention the service to get matched or instead select an availability that a donor already mentioned to save the time of getting matched
Joanna, age 30, holds a bachelor's degree in psychology. She lives in Los Angeles and is working as a therapist and counselor for children who have special needs. She enjoys doing this work, but she understands that it can be expensive and difficult for some parents to afford her normal day rates. This is why she has signed up for “How Can I Help?” to provide some care to families who do not have the resources to meet her regularly. She can only use the app in her free time, so she has a schedule on the app for when she is free and people can request to meet with her through the app. This app has helped connect her with many children who are now doing better in life with her occasional counseling sessions.
Heather, age 28, high school education. was recently evicted from her apartment in the city because she could not afford to pay the rent. This was due to her losing her job related to an ongoing crisis around the globe. She now lives in a tent somewhere in the city, many others suffer a similar fate. She is running low on money, but she needs to eat. She uses the How Can I Help app to look for anyone who is donating food items for people stuck in an unfortunate situation such as hers. She doesn’t own a vehicle or a bicycle, so she sorts the results by the shortest distance from her current location within the app.
Sam, age 25, currently lives in Pennsylvania. He recently accepted a big job offer and is expected to move to Florida soon for his new job as a software developer. Excited with his new chapter in life, he makes time to move out of his apartment. Although he doesn’t carry a lot of house items, he has an obsession of keeping a lot of clothes, but when he is unable to keep all his clothes he makes a quick decision to donate them. Sam also chooses to donate because he wants to consider donating winter clothes to those in need, since he won’t need them while at his new job. Sam uses the How Can I Help app to look for individuals or services that are actively seeking donations for new clothes, and saves time by making use of the posted requests to quickly find out if anyone needs clothes. Sam is familiar with technology given his background and is able to manage with the app.
Features List:
- As a new user, I want to Sign up in the application to register for the app by having an account so that the application has my information for further use
- As an existing user, I want to Sign into the application to be able to use it to donate/request and not have to register every time I want to use the app
- As a recipient, I want to see if there is any matched request and available donations so that I can meet my need a. As a user in quick need, I want to see a Preset search where a preset of items is available to tap that are available b. As a user with no education, I want to search for items with the keywords I know so that it could be easy for me to find the items under that category I want
- As a recipient with a matched availability for my request, I want to contact the donor through the app so that I can get the item from them
- As a recipient, I want the option to request the item directly mentioning it or choose from the available donations so that it could save time for me waiting to match
- As a donor, I want the option to add the item directly mentioning it or choose to donate the requested items so that it could save time for me waiting to match
- As a donor, I want to put up my schedule of available times so that people would know when they could pick up their matched item(s)
- As a user with travel limitations, I want to make a proximity based search using Google Maps connectivity so that I could know what items are available that are closer to my location