young-grasshopper
🦗 Current Iteration
🛠️ Tools
Python, Insomnia REST, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
📚 Python & JavaScript Libraries
Flask, Werkzeug (Security), Flask-Smorest, Swagger UI, Psycopg2, SQLAlchemy, Pandas, BeautifulSoup, PixiJS
💽 Data Platform & Data Types
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics | JSON, PostgreSQL Schemas & Tables
📋 Briefing
Using the general concepts laid out in the first iteration of this app, I decided to gamify the knowledge transfer of the financial toll of going to university. I did so by building a text-based game, inspired by Oregon Trail, that would simulate going to university in the United States. Storyboarded in Miro, the game would have a public & private university options; three career tracks and fifteen degrees for each based off Massachusetts top university programs. Built with players and admins in mind, users would be able to attend four years of university and receive a scorecard on acquired debt and estimated years to pay off debt based on their interest rate. Meanwhile, admins would be able to add degrees, courses, and mini-games to simulate working part-time & full-time while going to university.
Lessons Learned from First Iteration
- The first iteration of this app allowed users to use factual goverment online resources to do their own research on how much they could expect to get paid in any given occupation once they graduate. However, it required the user to take ownership of the research and find the information for themselves.
- The second iteration involved creating public and private universities with specific career tracks and degree options to allows users to simulate pursuing different degrees. This brought the previously researchable information to the user and allowed them to play through different lens.
- A major improvement took place by changing the content to be accessible only on one screen and requiring input from the user at each stage.
👨🏻🎓 First Iteration
🔧 Tools
JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
💽 Data Platform
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
📋 Briefing
The yearly costs associated with pursuing a higher education seem to increase every year by a rate that surpasses even the rate of inflation. Yet, prospective students are provided with little insight into the financial debt that their degree choices make on them post-graduation. As a result, a single-page web app was built to set expectations for students on what they would be making post-graduation and how much they could save by working while going to school. Users were also taught how to research their expected salary using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website.