BreakTheIce

Have a nice break or have an ice break🧊🥶❄️

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Inspiration

Just a few days ago, all of us were strangers. Getting to know people can be awkward and messy, but icebreakers can help spark upbeat and genuine conversation without all the pressure accompanying social interaction. However, upon doing a quick Google Search for icebreakers, the user is met with a wall of cumbersome text and convoluted instructions. So, our team wanted to create a website to aggregate existing icebreaker ideas with clear directions to help others break the ice. 🧊 Hey! Our web application is not like other websites, I bet, go search icebreaker ideas on Google and see how many random websites with chunks of words written and random sketchy links, and ads popping up. Do you think people really read all through that and actually follow the game rules? I don’t think so, and that's why our web application is perfect, simple, easy, and fun to use!! So what are you waiting for? Go play icebreaker and break some ice!! (don’t let the Polar bear attack you) :D The idea came when our group had an online meeting regarding brainstorming ideas for GDSCHacks. At that time we were not introduced to each other and found it difficult to break the ice among our group members. There we finally came up with the revolutionary idea of an ice-breaker app that had a compilation of multiple ice-breaker ideas/games and helped users to introduce themselves. We believe that this creation will help a lot of school-related activities, summer camps, clubs, and even professionally since there are all types of icebreakers in our application that anyone can play, and get to know people around them through fun and interactive way!

What it does

At its crux, the web application centralizes icebreaker ideas for easy access and intuitive step-by-step instructions. It also allows users to select a combination of tags which will send a request to Google Gemini for an icebreaker that meets all the selected criteria. Upon satisfaction, the user will accept the request and it will be added to the database To make easier UI functionality, we decided to keep it simple and easy. The whole point of an icebreaker game is to break down social barriers and create a more comfortable atmosphere, especially in situations where people may be meeting for the first time or in a formal setting. By engaging in light, often fun activities or conversations, participants can start to feel more relaxed and open to interaction.

How we built it

We used Figma for our main prototype and UI part of the project but additionally, we used react + ex.js to connect the UI with a domain for the icebreaker ice more interactive We used Figma prototyping and mapping out the UI.
We used React for the frontend, Node.js for the backend, and Express servers to connect the two.

Challenges we ran into

The university’s VPN was interfering with our MongoDB database connection. Interferences with our sleeping arrangement (which was not fair since they wouldn’t even let us take a nap or sleep anywhere on the campus) Didn’t gather a robust collection of icebreakers Honestly, we had so many project ideas and innovative applications we wanted to create or tackle real-life problems faced by us but one of the main challenges was to actually choose one of the great ideas and stick to one of the best idea for the GDSC hacks. Given the time constraints and many issues throughout the process, we decided to do an easy simple and innovative web application that can be useful to many types of users...

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • This is my first in-person hackathon and I’m proud of my team’s dedication and persistence even when things got tough!
  • Got to combine a multitude of skills into a single project and use new technology like Google Gemini I am proud that I got to directly apply skills learned in my courses to the UI component of the web application using the Figma tool along with using Abode Illustrator and Photoshop for editing pictures and icons for a cleaner version of the final project. Additionally, I also used concepts of design such as typography, color theory, and accessibility needs in the UI figma. My professor did a great job of teaching these small but critical skills that can make a huge difference in front-end development making it user-friendly for all types of users including people with ADHD, dyslexia, and colored blindness people.
  • Honestly, our team did a pretty good job in collaboration and teamwork. We were able to divide up the tasks and work well with the time while going to the activities and workshops. I am glad to have them as my teammates because this hackathon has been very fun and engaging with them!

What we learned

We had some first-time hackers on the team who learned how hackathons work and the importance of pacing oneself when trying to complete a project on a time constraint. We also learned more about machine learning and AI from the various workshops I learned how to step out of my comfort zone and try learning new things from workshops and other people as talking to others, mentors and people from other universities was a great knowledge. Thanks and a huge shoutout to the entire GDSC team for everything we learned during this hackathon through workshops and activities!

What's next for we broke the ice

In the future, we want to implement our custom gamified icebreakers or even existing icebreakers. This would make it convenient to perform the icebreaker in person or virtually through a tasteful interface. Expand our library of icebreakers Have a variety of games and a filter option/ search option that searches through the existing data or can direct users to an AI search bar for advanced search to find their desired icebreaker game

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