This class is taught by Mrs. Taricco and covers the basics of coding languages like HTML and JAVA. Working with HTML and CSS, our class learned how to structure and design a website and those strategies are what helped create the website you are scrolling through right now! Aside from that, classes are spent diving into JAVA code and different subsections including topics like truth tables, for and while loops, and static arrays and array lists. These topics are discussed and practiced through various exercises and labs. Scroll below to see some of my favorite coding projects from this year!
In today's consumer-driven world, clothing remains a symbol of self-expression and identity. However, the relentless pursuit of new garments often overlooks the environmental and economic consequences. Fashion production alone contributes to exacerbating environmental degradation. Rising inflation rates strain budgets, making traditional shopping unsustainable for many. Landfills grow with garments and textiles going to waste. Clothesmatch is our innovative application addressing these concerns by promoting sustainable practices, budget-friendly options, and extending clothing lifecycles. By merging thrifting with digital convenience, Clothesmatch offers a unique solution for conscious consumers seeking both style and sustainability. Clothesmatch offers three main features: profile creation for users to upload items for sale or trade, a browsing section where users swipe through items following a Tinder-style mechanism, swiping right on those they're interested in; and facilitated communication, allowing users to contact sellers for purchases or trades.
According to an analysis by Business Insider, fashion production comprises 10% of total global carbon emissions, significantly contributing to our declining environmental welfare. Along with that, with inflation rates rising for goods just 3.2% in the last year alone, many find that their overall expenses budget needs to be modified and reduced. However, going to large chain department stores to get new clothes isn't always affordable to the typical budget anymore, as individual items can cost between $30-$50 or more. Even online stores that sell clothes at extremely affordable prices, like Shien, are also, on the downside, associated with environmental negligence and human labor exploitation. Additionally, there is damage to our environment even after production as well, as the U.S Environmental Protection Agency reports that Americans generate 16 million tons of textile waste per year, of which 62.5% gets sent to landfills, increasing our global waste.
This app is targeted towards a younger audience, teenagers and young adults in particular; however, this app is open to anyone above the age of 16 who is looking to exchange and acquire trendy clothing in a sustainable way. The tinder-inspired user interface is eye-catching for younger adults and offers an interactive and immersive way to look for clothes that are being put up to sell or trade.
The conscious consumer is in this dilemma of trying to be both sustainable and not break the bank, but it seems like having both is near impossible. Meet Clothesmatch, an online shopping/bartering app that tackles these three issues. Through our app, we aim to reduce the impact and demand of fast fashion, help users economize while still providing great style, and increase the longevity of clothing so that less gets discarded in landfills. Taking the traditional thrifting experience and moving it onto an interactive and engaging digital platform, users will enjoy a customized experience for finding a wardrobe staple or a unique piece unattainable anywhere else. Please refer to the document on the left for fruther information regarding our app and it's overall structure and design.
Clothesmatch has three major components. First, the user can create a profile and upload items to sell or trade if they wish to do so. This would entail cloud storage to upload images and the ability to give items descriptions of size, weight, color, and any additional information. In the profile creation set-up, the user would also have the ability to link any socials, emails, or a phone-number so that an interested buyer knows how to contact them. Again, this would be contact information the user feels comfortable sharing, which is different for everyone. Second is the home page, which is also where the clothes browsing section would belong. Much like a TikTok “For You” page, listed items from sellers appear one at a time on cards holding an image with a title and brief description. The user can then swipe left to reject the item and continue browsing, or they could swipe right and “favorite” the item. That item would then appear on a separate page holding their list of favorites. Finally, the third component is facilitating the interaction. Users can click on items in their favorites list to get more information on the item and contact information for initiating the purchase. By promoting this idea of clothing exchange, in place of standard buying and selling, this app aims to provide an interactive interface for users to engage in trading over buying.
An important part of finalizing our app was ensuring different functions of the app ran under various scenarios. To do this, a multitude of test cases were run, testing all kinds of situations to see how the app would respond to external changes and exceptions. These test cases helped us see where we needed to improve for future implementations and what was already working well. We had a total of around 60 test cases, each of them targeting a different function or feature of our app. While there are many passes, there are also a fair share of fails which serves as indications for where we should focus our immediate future work on.
This was one of the first experiences we had using JAVA Applet so I really enjoyed this lab and seeing how to draw different shapes and objects using JAVA code. In this lab, we tried “drawing” things like cubes, our initials, and pacman flowers. I liked seeing how the designs would form when you ran the code, and troubleshooting it when it didn’t necessarily come out the way you wanted it to. I think the hardest part was the Pacman flower because you had to be cautious about the angles that the “Pacmen” were at to ensure the final product looked like a flower. Overall, it was a very good experience that opened my eyes to the world of JAVA Applet.
I chose to include this lab primarily because this was one of those assignments that showed me how useful JAVA code could be. Getting to write it up myself just solidified that thought as I got to see first-hand how some lines of code could then be combined to serve a bigger and more functional use. This lab was all about calculating federal income taxes and how the amounts varied depending on whether or not you were married and what your income was. The assignment was one of the few instances where we were introduced to test cases and had to do all of them by hand. It added to the appreciation towards Junit and how it runs through those test cases for you.