Our project, PsySearch, is dedicated to facilitating the graduate school search for psychology students. The platform’s primary goal is to provide a centralized, easily navigable resource that compiles comprehensive information about graduate universities and their psychology programs. This will greatly benefit students who may be overwhelmed by the scattered nature of such information and will make them better informed about their academic future.

PsySearch offers detailed program descriptions, and the ability to save your favorite universities to your profile for future reference. Its unique feature is an interactive map populated by map markers for schools globally that allows you to scroll and find local schools, and click on those markers to show more information on the school. This streamlines their admissions process by collecting all information into one place.

The front-end development is being implemented using Flutterflow, a versatile front-end framework that allows for fast development and deployment. The back-end is powered by Firebase, Google’s cloud platform, for authentication and database purposes. The website is hosted by Flutterflow. For our programming languages, we chose Dart for its compatibility with FlutterFlow and Python for data retrieval scripts. We are currently using Google Maps as FlutterFlow supports it natively. This may change as the functionality is limited. 

We will ensure reliability through rigorous testing on multiple devices and platforms. We ensure security as we use Firebase’s secure authentication system for user data protection and we adhere to best practices in data privacy like minimal permission requesting and using only safe libraries. For safety, we have continuous monitoring via. Google analytics so we can update to ensure the platform remains safe and reliable for users.

PsySearch is a comprehensive solution for psychology students embarking on their graduate journey. Our commitment to reliability, security, and user-friendly design positions PsySearch as a valuable asset in the academic and professional growth of its users.