Main Features

#Main Features

The following is a list of the major features that were implemented during the span of CSC 485B: Startup Programming at the University of Victoria. For readability, these features have been categorized as either foodie or farmer-focussed.

Foodie Features

This section of the wiki outlines the major features implemented for foodies in beLocal. A brief description of each has been included.

1. Responsive UI Design - In order to cater to the highest number of users, beLocal makes use of Twitter Bootstrap's responsive grid layout to ensure that site content is displayed correctly in a number of browsers on various devices. Screen sizes as small is 310px wide (tested on both Android and iOS) are supported, as are larger mobile displays such as tablets. For desktop, all screen sizes are supported and site content has been verified to display correctly on the latest versions of Google Chrome (OSX, Windows, and Linux), Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox (OSX and Windows), and Safari (OSX).

2. Sign In With and Without Facebook - Again, in order to cater to the highest number of users (and in response to user feedback), beLocal supports registration/sign in both with, and without Facebook. If Facebook is used to register as a vendor, a partial vendor profile containing information from Facebook (such as profile picture and email) will be automatically created. Is it also important to note that when not registering with Facebook, passwords are stored securely (using Django's salting and hashing functions) in the beLocal database. Currently, the only security issue that exists is the lack of SSL support, but we are currently working on getting this installed.

3. Explore Tabs for Foodies - The "In Season Now", "Farmers and Foodmakers" and "Markets" tabs were designed to make it simple for foodies to discover products around them. Whether they want to browse the latest in season products, discover vendors close by, or learn more about markets that are currently running, beLocal's explore tabs have them covered!

4. Liking - beLocal introduced liking as a non-intimidating way for foodies and farmers to rate each other. Later, we hope to introduce a more comprehensive rating system, but we feel that liking helps to create a sense of community that would otherwise be missing in the application.

5. Vendor Details Page - The vendor details page shows extended information on a specific vendor, including a map (added for M3 after listening to user feedback) of their selling locations (both market and custom locations) and a list of their products.

6. Search - Besides supporting the ability to quickly browse beLocal for products, vendors and markets, we also wanted to give users the ability to search the site easily. As a result, we have implemented an extensive search functionality to allow users to quickly find specific items, farmers and markets on the application.

7. Market Details Page - The Market Details page, in conjunction with the explore Markets tab, provide functionality that we believe will keep foodies coming back to beLocal even in the off season. Besides giving foodies and farmers the latest information on which markets are running currently, the Market Details page digitizes the local market experience, allowing users to quickly browse vendors and products who will be at markets before actually going.

8. Categories and Tags - In order to make the browsing of the latest in season products even easier, we implemented the ability to filter products (as well as product search results) by category and tags (both of which are currently defined by the beLocal team to ensure a high level of quality). Farmers are able to select one category and as many tags as they want for each of their products. Then, foodies are able to quickly select from various filtering options on the In Season tab to browse only products they are interested in.

9. Splash Page - Now on its third redesign, beLocal's splash page aims to introduce both foodies and farmers to our application in a way that is both meaningful and fun.

Farmer Features

This section of the wiki outlines the major features implemented for farmers and foodmakers in beLocal. A brief description of each has been included. Please note that features that apply to both foodies and farmers have already been listed in the foodie section above.

1. Create Item Modal - The ability for farmers to be able to post products has been important since day one. While doing initial requirements gathering, we were told that this feature would need to be "preschool" easy for farmers and foodmakers to use. We believe that we have achieved just that, allowing farmers to quickly add products and other related information such as a photo, a description, a category, and tags. Once items are created, it's also one click to toggle them as either In Stock (meaning they will display to users) or Out of Stock (meaning they will be hidden).

2. Create Location Modal - The ability for farmers to be able to say where they will be selling (be it at a market or at a custom defined location) has been arguably one of the most important features of beLocal. Similar to the Create Item Modal, we wanted this experience to be as simple as possible. With our Create Location Modal, farmers are able to easily join a Market that is running in town, or fill in a few fields to create their own location. One item of feedback we received from farmers is that we're currently missing a way to easily enter recurring selling locations with limited date ranges (For example, December 10 from 10am-4pm, December 11 from 12pm-6pm and December 12 from 9am-12pm). This is a known issue and it is high on our priority list of things to address.

3. Social Media Posting - The ability to post to social media was something that several of the vendors we spoke to said would be useful since currently, updating various social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook introduces a large amount of overhead into their already busy schedules. In response to this feedback, we implemented the ability for farmers to post directly to Facebook and Twitter from our application. We also decided to auto-generate statuses for farmers based on the selling locations and products that they have added on beLocal. Currently, farmers are unable to post directly to Facebook due to a lack of permissions. We are currently iterating on feedback provided to us by Facebook, but in the meantime, we encourage farmers to copy and paste our auto-generated status onto their Facebook timelines.

4. User Tour - In order to familiarize farmers (who may not necessarily be technologically savvy) with beLocal, we implemented a ten step tour to introduce the functionality that beLocal provides to them. This will show up to them upon first sign up, and will remain hidden unless they choose to take it again from the dropdown menu in the navigation bar.