Group1 INT3506

  Plan for This Week We will begin developing the system architecture.We will also finalize the technology stack by comparing options using a decision matrix based on criteria such as usability, scalability, and cost. In addition, project planning will commence with clear timelines, task allocation, and sprint goals to ensure smooth development going forward.

Author : Sampurna Adhikari Title : Survey  In order to obtain important information and public opinion about the project we are working on, a survey was carried out this week. This survey's main objective was to find out how prospective users felt about the system's main concept, features, and general usefulness. We wanted to gather both qualitative and quantitative input from a wide range of people so that we could make well-informed decisions about design and development. Users' expectations, current obstacles, and what features they would most value in an approach similar to ours were all covered in the survey. It also aimed to evaluate the degree of trust, interest, and readiness to embrace the idea after it is put into action. All things considered, the feedback collected through this survey will be extremely important in determining the project's future course. Plan for this Week This week, the focus will be on wrapping up the research phase by compiling finding...

Week 9-Report Author: Prajwal Project: Food Next Door This week I focused on the legal and political aspects of our application as part of our individual research assignments. One of the major legal concerns in food donation is the potential liability if someone becomes ill from donated food. In Australia, although there is no overarching federal law for food donation liability, each state and territory provides protections for donors. These laws generally protect individuals, businesses, and organizations from civil claims as long as the food was safe and properly handled. However, this protection does not apply in cases of negligence or intentional harm (Beckmann et al., 2022). Additionally, the Food Standards Code (FSC) is a national regulatory framework applied by all state and territory governments. It sets the rules for food safety, labeling, storage, and handling, and it applies to online platforms like Food Next Door that facilitate food redistribution (Department of Health,...

  In Week 9 of the FoodNextDoor project, our team finalized and consolidated the complete technology stack for the application, ensuring that each component is aligned with our performance goals, user needs, and long-term scalability. The finalized stack is built around the MERN stack— MongoDB , Express.js , ReactJS , and Node.js —which offers a full JavaScript-based development environment, streamlining both frontend and backend development. ReactJS is used to develop a dynamic, component-based frontend that ensures a responsive user experience, particularly useful for rendering the multi-page survey and search functions. To support styling, we integrated Tailwind CSS , which helped us build responsive and clean interfaces with minimal custom CSS. On the backend, Node.js serves as the runtime environment, with Express.js managing our server-side routing and API structure. This lightweight and efficient combination has allowed us to build and test RESTful APIs for user registr...

In Week 8, our focus for the FoodNextDoor project shifted toward deepening our technological research to ensure the tools and frameworks chosen align with our system’s performance, scalability, and usability needs. We reviewed and validated the stack we had already implemented—ReactJS for the frontend, Node.js and Express.js for the backend, and MongoDB as the primary database—and explored complementary technologies to enhance platform reliability. Our technological research included examining how RESTful API architecture could ensure smooth data exchange between modules and how we could optimize it using middleware and error handling strategies. We also investigated the security aspects of user data management, particularly around authentication. After comparing various options, we decided to implement JWT (JSON Web Tokens) for secure session handling due to its simplicity, statelessness, and widespread community support. For the frontend, our research confirmed that React’s component...

  During Week 7, the FoodNextDoor project team focused heavily on sprint implementation tasks that were essential for moving closer to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Our sprint aimed to complete key functionality including user registration, survey forms, backend integration, and staff search features. A major achievement was the successful development and testing of the user registration and login system, which now securely stores data and authenticates users via backend APIs. Another key milestone was the creation and connection of the multi-page survey form. This survey allows respondents to provide their preferences and details, with Page 3 dynamically changing based on the selections from Page 2. Despite some conditional rendering issues initially, we resolved these through collaborative debugging and logic refinement. We also began backend integration where survey responses are now stored in MongoDB through Node.js and Express routes. Furthermore, we developed a staff sear...

Author: Sampurna Adhikari Title : Digital Behaviour of Australians  Findings: Australia has 34.4 million mobile connections, which means there are around 128 mobile devices for every 100 people—a significant indication of broad, multi-device use among the population. Meanwhile, 26.1 million residents access the internet, accounting for an impressive 97.1% of the population. 48.9% browse using mobile devices and 51.1% preferred desktops or tablets. (Watt 2025) . The social acceptance of food-sharing apps is dependent on clear proper rules, local familiarity, and visible safety guidelines. (Watt 2025)

  Student: Prajwal Poudel Date: July 19, 2025 This week, I continued refining and expanding upon the features implemented during Sprint 4, shifting the focus toward preparing for broader usability testing and final integration. Following feedback from our previous sync, I worked on improving the responsiveness of the role-based UI components, especially for users switching between donor and receiver roles. I added fallback states and refined conditional rendering to ensure a smoother experience. One of the major areas of development this week was optimizing the history tracking feature. I worked on sorting and filtering mechanisms, allowing users to quickly navigate through previous listings. This was complemented with the addition of pagination and time-range filters to enhance usability when datasets grow larger. In terms of backend integration, I refined the real-time sync logic using Firestore triggers to better reflect listing status updates (e.g., "Claimed," "P...

 This week, I focused on converting the mapped user journeys and individual screen ideas into a unified, interactive structure using wireframes. The goal was to connect the screens logically and maintain a consistent user experience across the app. Structuring Interactive Flow Between Screens I designed and aligned low-fidelity wireframes for the following journeys: Food Donors : Starting from the Add Listings screen to tracking donations and handling pickup coordination. Food Recipients : Browsing food items, filtering by category or location, and submitting food requests. This helped ensure each flow is intuitive and that transitions between screens feel seamless. Key Design Improvements Navigation Flow : Mapped out transitions between screens (e.g., from browsing to claiming food) to ensure the fewest possible steps. Layout Reusability : Where possible, shared visual layouts between different user types to reduce development complexity. Feedback Iteration : ...

 Author : Sampurna Adhikari Focus: Research Study Research Completed  Technology Research :  Our choice prioritizes real-time syncing, fast development, low infrastructure cost, and easy scaling.(Compared various programming language and also database for our project) Research Ongoing  Social Research  Economical Research Legal/Political Research  Findings this Week Cases Too Good To Go  show successful models of tech-based redistribution. (Lewandowski n.d.) International Commitments and National Strategy By coordinating its policies with UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, which aims to cut food waste in half by 2030, Australia has made reducing food waste a national priority. With specific government, business, and civil society involvement, the National Food Waste Strategy (NFWS) was introduced in 2017 to address food loss and waste "from farm to fork." (Australian Government 2017) Governance and Policy A multifaceted strategy including all tiers ...

 Author:Sampurna Adhikari MOCKUPS  These are some of the most crucial screens of our project. Add Listings Screen An easy-to-use form created to gather the necessary information needed to list food items on the site. The following fields are present on the form: Title: The food item's short name or heading. Description: A brief description of the food item. Category: Food Type(e.g., baked goods, prepared foods, drinks, etc.). Quantity: The number of available portions or things. Price: The food item's cost (optional, discounted, or free). Timing/Expiration: To guarantee food safety, use the best-before or expiration date. Location: The general area or suburb for visibility. The precise place where the food can be picked up is known as the "pickup address." Any special instructions, such as "keep refrigerated," should be noted. Information on Allergens: Specifics regarding possible allergens, such as dairy and nuts. Photo Upload: This feature enables the user...

Student: Prajwal Poudel Date: July 12, 2025 This week, we submitted our Project Brief and afterwards, I concentrated on developing practical features as per Sprint 4.. During our team meeting, we discussed implementation goals, and I contributed primarily to history tracking, feature refinement and bug handling. Proposing intuitive methods of presenting the past listings of food and claims on the basis of timestamp data, I also discussed how this would open up some transparency to the contributors and receivers. I also researched how role-based UI components could dynamically adjust for dual-role users. This involved researching conditional rendering behaviours in React and assessing UX flows of similar platforms. To distinguish the experience even more, I tried adding a visual tag such as claimed or available soon, with the help of the real-time sync feature of Firestore. Besides design, I started intensive local testing of the new UI components on usability of the diverse use...

  Date: July 08, 2025 Author: Sagar Kumar Chaudhary This week, our UI/UX efforts concentrated on creating a registration wireframe tailored for the diverse users of our platform, FoodNextDoor . Our platform connects people who want to share surplus food with those who need it. To support this mission, our design had to consider the needs of both contributors and receivers . Dual-User Registration Model We identified two key user types: Receivers – Community members who look for available food donations. Contributors – Individuals or organizations offering food to share. The registration form uses a universal layout , ensuring simplicity regardless of user type. However, users must specify their role early in the process, which tailors their future interactions on the platform.  Key Design Decisions Shared Fields: Name, email, phone, password, and address are consistent for all users. Role Selection: A dropdown or toggle lets users choose whether they are...

 Author: Sampurna Adhikari Description of the Registration Screens Wireframe We have created a wireframe for our platform's registration screen that can accept two different user types: Users who browse and claim food offerings that are offered. Users who produce and list foods (include companies and individuals) Both user kinds are shown identical input fields during the registration process; the selection of the user type is the main difference. We are in the process of deciding whether or not users should be able to utilise a single account for both browsing and listing. More flexibility would be possible with this feature, enabling users to use the platform and contribute as needed. More wireframes are being designed!!

Student: Prajwal Poudel During this week, I was trying to comprehend the technical and methodological basis of the development of hospital-based data gathering and personnel search system. My main intention was to examine the structure of such systems in the real world and what are the academic frameworks which we can use to shape our thinking. The second step that I took was to go through the Google Scholar literature regarding healthcare systems and software project approaches. One of the most useful sources was an exploration of case study approaches and application of Delphi technique in gathering requirements. These sources have allowed me to learn how to construct a legitimate user-centered system but also the approach that our team should take relating to the implementation of a waterfall model but altered. Also, I helped the team with the preliminary design discussion and paid attention to the structure of the database and the essential characteristics to consider in our sys...

This week, I focused on transforming the user journeys mapped out last week into interactive wireframes that begin to shape the look and feel of the FoodNextDoor app. The goal was to ensure that every screen logically connects with the next, minimizing friction and confusion for users. Wireframing Core Screens I designed low-fidelity wireframes for key parts of the app based on the user flows of: Food donors: donation form, tracking donations, pickup coordination Food recipients: browsing available food, request submission, notifications Fridge users: locating fridges, contributing items, usage tracking This process revealed opportunities to unify screen layouts across user types to maintain consistency while still catering to their specific needs. Feedback Loop & Iteration After creating the initial wireframes, I shared them with the team for feedback. Based on their suggestions, I’ve already begun tweaking navigation patterns, simplifying call-to-actions, and adju...

Team Member : Sampurna 8003   As we have decided to integrate Delivery Partners, i did some research and then found out that Uber Eats API is easily available and comes with clear instruction on their Uber Developers Docs.  Google Maps API can be used for pickup location. Stripe  API for real time payments.  We are still deciding on the tech to use and I find out that APIs are easily integrable with Python and JavaScript(Particularly with Node.js)   Issue Found and Solved As the way i created communication and contingency plan did not meet the requirements, we got feedback from teacher and fixed it right away. Along with this I also compared some other programming languages that can be used for our project. started with pros and cons list of 5 languages along with databases.  Programming  Databases References List Jeremiah, O 2024,  Mastering Python APIs: A Comprehensive Guide to Building and Using APIs in Python , Datacamp.com, DataCamp. Nex...

  Week 6 – Deep Dive into Technology for FoodNextDoor Date: July 4, 2025 Author: Sagar Chaudhary This week, our group focused on the technical direction of our community-driven food-sharing platform, FoodNextDoor . Our goal is to ensure that the platform is scalable, secure, and user-friendly for both food donors and recipients. Core Website Features in Development User Roles : Donors, Recipients, Delivery Volunteers. Food Listing System : Donors can upload food details and expiry info. Matching Algorithm : Matches donations with nearby recipients using Google Maps and distance matrix. Delivery Management : Integration of delivery scheduling, with future option to include external partners. Real-time Notifications : Using WebSocket or Firebase for notifying users about pickup times or matches. Future Tech Possibilities We’re also exploring AI-driven features like: Food waste prediction Recipient need forecasting Route optimization using machine learni...