art lav

Share your (queer) art to your local LGBTQ+ community :3

watch a video of our demo! https://youtu.be/8Fp89tMSdFA

The Problem

Despite growing media representations of the LGBTQ+ community, the vast majority of queer represntation stems from urbanized populations. Those living in rural areas or countries with a smaller LGBTQ+ presence may have a hard time finding a queer community in their local sphere and feel comparatively isolated as a result. We need a safe platform for people to connect with other queer people in their area no matter where in the world they live in.

Our Solution

With full anonymity, art lav provides artists a platform to connect with other artists within a 20 mile radius. Any form of artisitc self expression, including queer art and art made by queer artists, is highly encouraged! art lav will help you find and connect with your local LGBTQ+ community through art.

How it works

art lav is a React web app that allows users to select their location and then view and post artwork anonymously to a 20 mile radius. The posts, locations, and individual user data is stored in Firebase authentication and storage.

Here is a detailed list of features:

• user signup, login, signout, and forgot password functionality
• allow user to select and change their location coordinates through an interactive map
• filter user feed to show posts from a 20 mile radius
• allow user to post their own art
• allow user to access the art they posted in their profile page
• allow user to like posts in their feed
• order local posts based on number of total likes (top liked posts appear on the top of the feed)

Design + Final Result

Main Feed

Special thanks to @chosuh for allowing us to use her art for the demo :)

Login/Signup

Location Selection

Your Posts/Profile

Challenges

• having little prior experience in backend, specifically Firebase caused some delays in implementing features such as photo uploads
• there were some issues in determining the math needed to decide which photos were the user radius
• implementing the useContext hook for the first time
• css bugs, such as when applying a filter causes child elements to change position from absolute to relative

Future Opportunities

Given more time, we would expand this project to contain more features such as:

• a report button, to moderate content and provide a safe online space
• allowing the user to alter their location radius (as opposed to the default 20 miles)
• providing users an option to link their socials to their art
• enhanced security