The Better World Project: Hands on Democratic Activism

Project Vitals

Partner Organization: Dr. Ellis Jones, The Better World Shopping Guide

Tech Tools

Thunkable Pro app development software
Airtable database
Canva Pro
Instagram

Project Outcomes

Learned no-code/"plug-in" coding app development program
Wireframed and prototyped app interface designs and navigation
Created social media content and infographics using Better World Guide social and environmental data
Reorganized our partner's data onto an Airtable database with over 2,000 company records
Handed off app development knowledge & experience to future Everett students

Project Milestones

July 2021: Began learning app development & design on Thunkable
August 2021: Meeting with Everett alumni Thomas Gelder to begin learning Airtable databases
August 2021: Finalized home and browsing screen design layouts on Thunkable
September 2021: Pivoted tech soltuions and created Everett Student's Guide to App Development
August 2021: Initiated Better World Social Media account on Instagram

Marissa McGuire (left)

pronouns: she/her

Psychology major at De Anza College,

Class of 2024

Her current goals are to transfer to a UC school and eventually pursue a masters or Ph.D. desgree to become a pyschologist

Margarida Costa (top left)

pronouns: they/she

Feminist Studies & Sociology Major with GISES, Class of 2023

Intersted in making spaces of sustainability and health accessible to all people and breaking our dependency on oil and carbon reliant lifestyles

Maggie Johnson (center left)

pronouns: she/they

Environmental Studies with Ecology and Evolutionary Bio Major, Class of 2021

Her career aspects include working with sustainable food systems and agroecology to make organic living more accessible for everyone

Tech Guides

Rachel Tuggy (center right)

pronouns: she/her

Community Bridges project,

Class of 2021

Han Dinh (right)

pronouns: she/her

Love4Life project,

Class of 2021

The Better World Guide

The Better World Shopping Guide written by Dr. Ellis Jones is a public research project that rates the sustainability of over 2,000 companies on an A through F scale based on a variety of factors from environmentalism, to social justice, to human and animal rights, worker protections, and corporate responsibility, from over 20 years of Dr. Jones' research. It intends to provide citizens with a resource for accessing public data on the ethical behaviors of companies, so consumers can use this knowledge to make more ethical shopping decisions.

The Problem

Dr. Jones' research is available as a pocketbook, on his website, and on a mobile app called the better world. His app, however, has not been updated since 2016 as updates require manually changing and reuploading data through the App store which can be a long and tedious process. The better world app also has a confusing user interface design and does not contain much of the comprehensive information on companies as in his book. Lastly, the app requires a few bug fixes, many of which cannot be simply updated.

Partner Needs

Make Dr. Jones' social and environmental data on companies more accessible to consumers
Promote The Better World Guide and its mission towards economic activism and democratized shopping
Develop a more efficient and up-to-date system for uploading data onto a mobile app

Project Solution

Develop a free mobile app with a simple-user interface design which contains all the essential data taken from The Better World Guide handbook for consumers to be able to access his research freely on their devices
Initiate an online social media presence for Better World to promote outreach for both the guidebook and the app
Organize Dr. Jones' data into a database that can integrate with an app development software where data can be automatically uploaded through the base and uploaded directly onto the app

Dr. Ellis Jones

Associate professor of Sociology at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts

Project Deliverables

Designed a skeletal layout of our app on Thunkable

Consolidated over 2,000 records of social and environmental data on companies on Airtable

Created social media content for The Better World Guide

Developed an app development & social media guidebook for future students in the Everett Program

Impact Testimonies

Everett student guidebook

Lessons Learned

Heads

Just get started!

Excessive research and planning delayed our project. implementation We learned a lot more from doing hands-on, trial-and-error tech learning where we made mistakes, failed, and then could troubleshoot to figure out what went wrong.

Hearts

Set practical goals and be realistic with our limits

Our project had very ambitious goals which felt overwhelming at times. We learned how important it was to space out our goals and give ourselves weekly deadlines for small deliverables.

Hands

Handing off our project sustainably

When things get overwhelming, we didn't ditch all the hard work we did. Rather, we found a way to pivot our work into something long-term and meaningful that could be helpful to other students. We learned from Dr. Jones and the Everett program that it is actually a very strong professional skill to know when to step back and hand off your work in a sustainble manner.

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