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Team, Food Oasis Los Angeles |
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Food Oasis LA (FOLA) is being built by volunteers at Hack for LA, coming together from different backgrounds with one objective: creating a platform to fight against food deserts. Below is more information about each of our three working groups, their project responsibilites, and current challenges.
The Web Development team is responsible for updating & maintaining the front end & back end of FOLA’s website, which centers around a list of food sources in Los Angeles presented on a map. We're aiming to create an experience similar to Yelp's, where users can find food banks, community gardens, and farmer's markets near them simply by entering their location.
We're using map data from Open Street Map, with tile images and a map interface provided by Leaflet and Mapbox. The site itself is generated by Jekyll and hosted with GitHub Pages. The map (which was especially challenging to build) is a blend of Leaflet, Open Street Map, Mapbox and web languages like JavaScript.
While our technology stack meets most our needs, many our tools and services are only free if we receive less than 2,500 pageviews per day. Our team would greatly appreciate any help (i.e. grants or sponsorships) offsetting these costs when FOLA begins generating more web traffic.
- Developing back end skills
- Developing mapping online skills
- Funding for hosting
The mapping team collects datasets that are relevant to food security issues. This involves data aggregation, cleaning, and creation. A variety of file types are used including shapefiles, CSVs and spreadsheets. To edit, style, and create polygon-type geospatial geometries, the team uses QGIS.
Our data comes from a variety of sources including the Los Angeles County Data Portal, the Los Angeles City Data Portal, and other governmental agencies. We have also received custom datasets from local activists and organizations in addition to creating own own.
- Deciding/discovering what data to collect
- Finding up-to-date datasets
- Cleaning datasets to select relevant and accurate information
- Reconciling datasets into a single format
- Working with online mapping platforms in a way that reflects the GIS desktop application capabilities
- Processing and creating georeferenced data, managing the complexity of datasets
- Creating analysis layers
- Manual data entry
The Design Team develops the overall look, feel, and experience of the website while maintaining a unified visual identity. We began by brainstorming how our branding could reinforce the overall mission of FOLA. This process included choosing a name for the project, creating mood boards to determine FOLA's tone, determining our service’s primary users, and researching how they will discover and access our website.
Graphics were created using Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and The Noun Project. Wireframing was done using Wix. UI/UX was done using Sketch.
- Improving usability so navigation is intuitive
- Maintaining FOLA's branding
- Harnessing the graphic capabilities of our online mapping platforms
- Designing for multiple screen sizes
- Constantly testing/iterating on website design
- Creating outreach/marketing materials
- Ahmed Abdulkarim
- Lori Abichandani
- Tinuola Awopetu
- Jessica Ayunani
- Dan Benson
- Ebrahim Bhaiji
- Steve Bradford
- Ian Carroll
- Andrew Douglas
- Mario Esparza
- Tamura Fatherree
- Kiki Garrison
- Melissa Halim
- Raven Hardison
- Regan Hutson
- Jon Kim
- Stella Kim
- Liz Krane
- Michael Kunc
- Hannah Lazarus
- Patrick Lewis
- Jason Lipshin
- Gregor Martynus
- Amanda McGlothlin
- Robert Nolty
- Rebecca Pizano
- Danny Prikaz
- Joshua Robins
- Johnny Romano
- Wesley Rowe
- JR Ruiz
- Robert Sandor
- Jon Schleuss
- George Syrop
- Wes Tawfik
- Jim Thoburn
- Arlene Waclawek
- Halina Zarate
Join us at Hack for LA, Tuesdays at 6pm!