Sustainify — Sustainability scores for online shopping.

Experience

Built at McHacks 13, my first ever hackathon experience was filled with extreme highs and lows. There was a point when the UI was so bad that we contemplated even submitting the project. However, the highs were equally extreme. While demoing the project to judges, our team really felt like we were going to win it all. We won nothing. Sleeping 0 hours overnight and needing to demo 5 times was surely an experience that I will never forget.

Motivation

I have always been very into fashion and try to be conscious of what purchases I make online. Many people, including myself, have given in to the fast fashion industry when looking for a specific garment. I realized that if there was an easy way to get sustainable alternatives for the products I wanted, I would definitely support that. Hence, I wanted to build Sustainify, an easy-to-install Chrome extension that helps users be more sustainable in their shopping.

Learned

A big part of creating this project was finding a way to make it actually marketable. A Chrome extension is by no means flashy. I needed to think of how to design a product that people would not just use but also enjoy and share with others. We accomplished this by gamifying the entire experience and creating a personal plant for users that grows or dies depending on their stash’s average sustainability score. Additionally, this was my first time demoing a self-created project for others. I am proud of the improvements I made from demoing to other friends during the hackathon to the last judge.