The Neighbor to Neighbor project, started in 2018, and is a collaboration with Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N), a volunteer-run organization that collects and delivers gently-used furniture, and performs critical home repairs in the Tompkins County community. Each iteration on this project focuses on different goals. The first priority was to create a more efficient website, migrate their existing data to that website, and link up their new donations portal. Currently, the project team is creating an inventory database and app for the organization’s Furniture Redistribution program to keep track of all the furniture. Optimally, the solution we create should be something that is easy to teach to others, and easy to use while out making deliveries. Some of the questions we are considering in our research are:
- How can we implement a web app that will be user-friendly and useful enough to replace existing systems ?
- How can we design a web app that is maintainable and secure?
In stage one this semester, we hope to deploy the inventory app so N2N can easy add new furniture to the database and change the status of where furniture items are. In stage two, we will add a scheduling app that uses the inventory to build a delivery/pick up schedule. After creating the web app, we hop to get feedback from N2N to iterate on the design based on user interviews. A successful version will allow N2N to track their furniture distribution program more securely and efficiently. Our end product may also be able to be used by other organizations in Ithaca doing similar things, such as ReUse Center and MutualAid.
Check out this mini-report about our data modeling approach
By developing this web application, we were able to provide N2N with a more efficient and easy way to keep track of their inventory and know where each item is; on the truck, in the shet, to be picked up, or delivered to someone. By providing a database and intuitive ways of adding and changing the location of furniture, N2N is better able to keep track of inventory. The next step in our development will be to integrate volunteer sign ups and a system to schedule delivery runs in one place to make the process more streamlined and efficient.
Read this article to learn more about the project!
CURRENT JUNIOR PROJECT TEAM:
Kira Segenchuk
Andrew Gao
OTHER STUDENTS WHO HAVE WORKED ON THIS PROJECT:
Geoff Brann
Catie Rencricca
Devin Chin
Jasper Weed
Ray Weng
Aviva Munoz