ChallengeHer

🏆 Built at TechNova 2023, winner of Best Use of MongoDB Atlas.

ChallengeHER.mp4

💡 Inspiration

The tech industry is currently grappling with a lack of gender diversity, primarily because many women in this field feel isolated and struggle to find mentorship. This isolation not only hampers their professional development but also perpetuates the gender gap within the tech sector. This is something we know too well.

But it's not just us...

Across the entire tech sector, the percentage of women in tech leadership roles is trending down, currently at 28%, according to DDI’s 2023 Global Leadership Forecast. "Whether it’s an all-boys-club mentality or a lack of mentorship and training, many women often feel that they don’t have the same opportunities for promotions and career advancement as men.” (CNBC) "The impact of mentorship on career satisfaction is striking: 40% of women cite lack of mentorship as one of the biggest challenges in the tech industry, alongside a lack of female role models and opportunities for advancement." (Acronis) So we asked ourselves:

How might we create a supportive and inclusive environment in the tech industry that empowers women with easier access to mentorship and removing isolation, enabling them to thrive and contribute effectively while bridging the gender gap?

🤝 What it does

Introducing ChallengeHer, a groundbreaking platform designed to foster mentorship and a sense of community among women in the tech industry. Our platform operates on a simple premise: members create profiles featuring bios and customizable tags that reflect their interests and expertise. Once profiles are set up, users can engage in challenges, which range from tech-focused projects to recreational activities like hiking.

Upon selecting a challenge, members are matched with like-minded individuals, facilitating meaningful connections within the app. Users can seamlessly communicate to coordinate challenge activities, and upon successful completion, participants can upload proof as specified by the challenge creator.

To increase engagement and participation among users, we gamified the entire ChallengeHer experience. Users can collect coins by completing challenges, where coins are based on the estimated amount of time each challenge should take. They are then given a badge on their profile dependent on the number of coins they currently have. The app also has a leaderboard showcasing the most active members, and by setting an end date for each challenge, we also encourage users to participate in them and network with others sooner rather than later.

ChallengeHer reimagines networking by enabling authentic interactions through shared experiences. By participating in activities alongside fellow women in tech, we aim to dispel feelings of isolation and connect individuals with like-minded peers. While coffee chats are common, we believe that these immersive activities will empower women in tech to forge deeper, more authentic connections within the community.

🧰 How we built it

React and Chakra UI: The front end of our web app was created using React and styled with Chakra UI.

Express.js: The back end ran on an Express.js server with several routes and endpoints to integrate with the front end.

MongoDB Atlas: All images and data for users and challenges were stored using multiple collections in a MongoDB Atlas database.

Figma: A high-fidelity prototype of ChallengeHer was created on Figma in the initial stages of planning.

🤔 Challenges we ran into

In the front end, we initially wanted to use Tailwind with React but struggled with getting it to work even though we have used it for previous projects before. After deciding to use Chakra UI, we also struggled with getting React Router to work. Further, Chakra UI was new to all our team members so we spent quite some time learning.

Another challenge was that one of our team members got sick during the weekend which meant that we weren’t able to complete as much of the project as we wanted to :(

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Our UI/UX designer learned Figma for the first time and mocked up our entire app
• One of our team members completed her first hackathon
• Using GitHub to stay organized by using issues, pull requests, a project, and branch protection rules on our main branch

🧠 What we learned

• MongoDB
• Chakra UI

❓ What's next for ChallengeHer

• Log-in and sign-up authentication
• Friending functionality
• Show challenges completed and friends on the profile
• Challenge status page for organizations
• Chat history