1. Overview
This project is a mobile app that lets students from the same high school form a network and connect with each other.
I built it to give students who share the common background of attending the same school an easy way to connect, share their interests and activities, and build meaningful relationships.
The idea for this project came from wanting to expand how students communicate beyond the limited physical space of the school.
I noticed that a lot of students at the same school never got to know each other, and felt the need for a digital space where people could build new connections around shared interests or activities.
I wanted to go beyond simple chat and create an environment where students could showcase their own projects or activities, find peers who shared similar interests, and collaborate even within the school.
2. System Architecture
I used React Native to build the mobile app.
I used Next.js for the web-based admin tool and user support, and Nest.js to build the app's server.
MongoDB was used as the database.
Pickle is made up of the following screens.
| Screen | Role |
|---|---|
| Home screen | Provides all posts, grade-level boards, post creation, search, and more |
| Live screen | Shows users' story-style posts |
| Chat screen | Provides chat with other users |
| Profile screen | Access profile, settings, and more |
3. Retrospective
As you can tell from the system diagram, this was a project I really put my heart into.
I mapped out a roadmap covering not just development, but design and how the app would eventually be run — but once I moved into my third and final year of high school and had to focus on studying for the university entrance exam, I only got as far as finishing the frontend, and had to stop before the backend was done, which left me with a lot of regret.
Working on the roadmap and product spec for how it would eventually run taught me the importance of operations and planning in a way that development alone never had.