Objectives: to create and launch an online platform for interaction between charity organizations and volunteers
Technology stack: React JS, Go lang
Project period: June-August 2020
Team: Project supervisor (BA+PM), Front-end developer, Back-End developer and UX/UI designer

It was a quick little project that, despite its brevity, left the entire ITQsoftware team with the best memories of the process. We all have our favorite projects, don't we? Impact is one of them for us!

But first things first. So it was a project about volunteering.

Volunteering in the U.S. is not just popular, it is massive. And it is a normal part of the American way of life. The motto "Giving back to the society" calls for giving something back to society as much as we can in return for the opportunities it provides. Schoolchildren, students, working adults, and even retirees do volunteer work.  Although not literally required for university admission, participation in volunteer projects gives an extra point and improves a student's chances of admission, and is counted in the hiring process. It is a common and integral part of life in American society.

The customer and the challenge

In the summer of 2020 we were approached by a customer from the US (for now we will just say that, although later we will reveal a little about what kind of customer it was) with the task to develop and launch a platform, an online portal, in the shortest possible time, where charities and volunteers themselves could meet and start working.

Solution

We are especially proud of the fact that we completed the project from idea to launch in just three months. There was no time to warm up, and the customer had only a vision of the goal and the functionality of the final product.

And so from scratch in three months we created a platform that can accommodate hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of volunteers.

The platform allows organizations to: 

• Create pages
• Create events and a calendar of events
• Invite volunteers
• Chat with volunteers
• Manage volunteers and members

The platform allows volunteers to:

• Create a personal page/profile
• Keep track of events of interest
• Join projects
• Correspond with organizations.

For ease of use of the platform we added ability to register through Facebook and Google.

There was a team of 4 people working on the project: a project manager who also acted as a business analyst, a Front-end developer, a Back-End developer and a UX/UI designer who also acted as the Product Owner

Technology stack: React JS, Go lang

Project features: We often say that we only work with Senior Developers and that this is a principled position of our team. Confidence, reliability, professionalism. But the main feature of this project was that the customers were young people aged 18 or older who had just finished high school. They were the customers for the product, the designers, and the developers themselves. They were serious and engaged in a very active and mature way, and they drew the design in about a week, and it was done beautifully and professionally.  Even though there were 11 time zones between us, and we had to adjust our schedule (some of us had to get up very early, and others had to stay up late at night), the work proceeded easily, with burning eyes. When the project supervisor says, even after almost a year, that "it was fun and cool to work with them" - it means a lot. We wish the guys every success!