Ask HN: What's a software project that made people's lives better?
What's a software project you've worked on that's had a positive impact in people's lives, or made it better in some way?
15 comments
I helped a friend at the gym fix their hotkeys in Windows when some out of date writing software started screwing with it. Outside of that, I've learned that well-tested (user tested) UI of any kind is some of the most impactful work a software dev/designer could be doing on a regular basis, regardless of what backend devs or w/e will tell you. Making a scrollable area more clearly look like a scrollable area, or making a password entry process less arduous, is incredibly important work, if not only because it saves some other people from being confused and wasting energy on a problem they shouldn't have; this is particularly true of any public service interface stuff.
I did a re-write of a website for a highly-rated charity organization. They solicit monies to fund orphanages, build homes, and sponsor individual children in one specific country.
They were changing processors and backend CRMs and it was a big project that I handled as the only dev in a small shop.
The transition went well and I didn't disrupt the millions in donations the site takes in each year.
My work was small compared to that of the volunteers in the organization, though. It's cool to see what you can do with code--really some powerful leverage we wield.
They were changing processors and backend CRMs and it was a big project that I handled as the only dev in a small shop.
The transition went well and I didn't disrupt the millions in donations the site takes in each year.
My work was small compared to that of the volunteers in the organization, though. It's cool to see what you can do with code--really some powerful leverage we wield.
I also recently volunteered to do a digital project for a volunteer group I'm part of. I built a feature for their website that shows local River levels in a color-coded manner to determine if it's a good time to float or not.
The USGS data is hard to read, this makes it easier.
The USGS data is hard to read, this makes it easier.
This was a software project for me, wanted something that lets me know what things to do in the area, where are shops, what are their hours, how to contact them, etc. Not only for businesses but for public spaces (say you wanted to rent the local park for an event-contact info is there), also event information, local notices, etc.) I've used it several times checking if some store in the town I'm headed is open (go to the local info page, then click on the facebook link and see if it is actually open) as well as a place to point others local resources (like where can we hold a wedding near town X).
https://doplaces.com After ten years I've learned it's to get people to submit information (even if listings are free) also has been a challenge for this semi-introverted programmer to market it.
Another project (for my employer) we have had a printed community resource directory for decades this helps people find local government/aid resources for families and has got recognition for its handyness in emergencies. I have created a web version - the notable part on this one is putting in a facility so those on mobile can (via cookies) select favorites and write notes associated on those for later reference. https://rr.trcac.org/resdir.htm I guess the other challenge in this area is we are rural and a good portion of the population is not all that well connected or tech savvy. The paper one still currently wins out over the on-line version.
https://doplaces.com After ten years I've learned it's to get people to submit information (even if listings are free) also has been a challenge for this semi-introverted programmer to market it.
Another project (for my employer) we have had a printed community resource directory for decades this helps people find local government/aid resources for families and has got recognition for its handyness in emergencies. I have created a web version - the notable part on this one is putting in a facility so those on mobile can (via cookies) select favorites and write notes associated on those for later reference. https://rr.trcac.org/resdir.htm I guess the other challenge in this area is we are rural and a good portion of the population is not all that well connected or tech savvy. The paper one still currently wins out over the on-line version.
Re: project for your employer: Is 211 not a viable option in California or in the counties your org serves?
Don't get me wrong, I've tried working on 211 in Washington, DC and experienced the same thing, ultimately: Individual nonprofits creating their own resource and referral systems since 211 was not cutting it and would likely never cut it.
Don't get me wrong, I've tried working on 211 in Washington, DC and experienced the same thing, ultimately: Individual nonprofits creating their own resource and referral systems since 211 was not cutting it and would likely never cut it.
Last time I heard about 211 in our counties - about 20 years ago - they (the agency that got a tri-county grant) had a resource directory website and were looking into doing phone support but funding left for some reason and the site is long gone. (Found Calaveras 211 - has only PG&E public safety/Hate crime support line/tobacco cessation info.)
Will see if it has regained any support up here - don't see much advertising for it in this rural area, and looking at the California 211 most of the resources point to the central valley... Thanks for the heads up!
Will see if it has regained any support up here - don't see much advertising for it in this rural area, and looking at the California 211 most of the resources point to the central valley... Thanks for the heads up!
I've had 2 (so far)
I was part of a team which built a very early telehealth platform. A bunch of the work was open-sourced as rtc.io (though I didn't have much to do with that). The resulting company and tech is used by a few million people a month (I think).
I built an ML system used at a large drop-ship retailer which ingested huge excel spreadsheets of products from suppliers and added them to the retailers database in a consistent manner. This made a painstaking and horrible job for 12 people into a job that was done by 2 people 2 hours per week. Yes, we replaced people in their jobs, and I hope they all went on to get better jobs, because everyone hated that job, and most people only lasted a few months.
I also was founder of Ayvri (3d mapping sports tech for paragliders) - I don't put this in the same category as the others, though it was the most lucrative for me, because though paragliders loved it, as did a few ultramarathoners, etc. I don't think it really had the level of impact.
For the last 4 years the team I worked with in telehealth have returned to our health roots and are working on improving sleep with affectablesleep.com
I was part of a team which built a very early telehealth platform. A bunch of the work was open-sourced as rtc.io (though I didn't have much to do with that). The resulting company and tech is used by a few million people a month (I think).
I built an ML system used at a large drop-ship retailer which ingested huge excel spreadsheets of products from suppliers and added them to the retailers database in a consistent manner. This made a painstaking and horrible job for 12 people into a job that was done by 2 people 2 hours per week. Yes, we replaced people in their jobs, and I hope they all went on to get better jobs, because everyone hated that job, and most people only lasted a few months.
I also was founder of Ayvri (3d mapping sports tech for paragliders) - I don't put this in the same category as the others, though it was the most lucrative for me, because though paragliders loved it, as did a few ultramarathoners, etc. I don't think it really had the level of impact.
For the last 4 years the team I worked with in telehealth have returned to our health roots and are working on improving sleep with affectablesleep.com
> I also was founder of Ayvri (3d mapping sports tech for paragliders) - I don't put this in the same category as the others, though it was the most lucrative for me, because though paragliders loved it, as did a few ultramarathoners, etc. I don't think it really had the level of impact.
I used to paraglide, and I remember it as Doarama. It was quite used by paragliders, especially in some videos. Personally I liked it in the beginning, but people started to abuse it, and sometimes the videos would consist mostly on the doarama scene (with a voice over). I would skip those parts of the video, or close the video after some time. It wasn't the same as watching a real video capture from the terrain, which I did prefer..
I used to paraglide, and I remember it as Doarama. It was quite used by paragliders, especially in some videos. Personally I liked it in the beginning, but people started to abuse it, and sometimes the videos would consist mostly on the doarama scene (with a voice over). I would skip those parts of the video, or close the video after some time. It wasn't the same as watching a real video capture from the terrain, which I did prefer..
I recently left my job at ClassDojo. It is a place that truly wants to help teachers do well and improve the education experience for kids (and their parents/guardians). We love to hear from the teachers about how much ClassDojo makes a difference for them.
The company is exploring a ton of cool stuff to help kids beyond their classroom, and really wants to make things better.
The company is exploring a ton of cool stuff to help kids beyond their classroom, and really wants to make things better.
We used this at my kid’s summer drama program and loved the UX of the app. Really well done.
Appreciate that. That use case is a bit of an edge case that we want to support. Not all parents feel so positive but I swear we do our best
FindCovidTesting.com
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22650725
We ended up placing I think 40000 tests. Informed Sen Warren’s report and was eventually absorbed into the GISCorps program.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22650725
We ended up placing I think 40000 tests. Informed Sen Warren’s report and was eventually absorbed into the GISCorps program.
I rewrote a scheduling system used in hospitals. This was when hospitals switched to centralized scheduling. It was a rule based AI engine that made sure patients would get the earliest possible appointment given x resources of y types required. There were 30 or so types of rules (it's been a few years now) and a great puzzle.
I made a web app that lets people check their bikes in and out of a bike valet service at a big hospital near me. I set up a usage dashboard and it’s neat to see that 300-400 people use it everyday to make their commutes a little more hassle free.
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I've gotten early feedback that my project https://exoroad.com is helping people find US places that are a better match for them to move to.
I worked on a data science platform that is being used to accelerate research for diagnosing cancer at early stages and for researching treatments for cancer and other diseases.
One project I really enjoyed making was an open-source indoor web map for a museum: https://map.fieldmuseum.org/
(Speaking for myself only. I don't work there anymore.)
I don't know if the map's made people's lives any better, or just a little more annoying, maybe =/ Personally, I would've preferred a regular paper map on the back of a brochure, which can be both much bigger than a phone screen and not require any learned UI interactions. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be stopped using paper maps during COVID (a decision I tried to fight, unsuccessfully). So our visitors could either use this map on their phones or not have one at all. In that sense, I guess it was better than nothing...?
At the time we built this (a few years ago), indoor mapping (as opposed to the typical outdoor street mapping of Google/Apple/OSM/etc.) was a pretty niche area, and the commercial solutions we saw were all some combination of 1) expensive, 2) slow, 3) clunky, 4) too proprietary, or 5) not mobile-friendly.
So we set out to make our own... with a budget of $0 and a dev team of 1 inexperienced web dev (me). It was the first time I ever worked on a web map, and trying to hack indoor areas and multiple floors onto it was... a challenge! It's got a lot of problems (it's laggy on some phones, editing the geometry is a huge PITA, UI isn't great and has bugs, branding/marketing imposed many restrictions, etc.). Honestly, it's pretty jank code that I wish I could rewrite from scratch. We had a whole roadmap of planned improvements and cleanups, but our team was forced to moved on right after initial release.
But on the plus side:
1) It's free and open-source: https://github.com/arcataroger/openlayers_indoor_map (but it's abandoned and I wouldn't recommend using it unless you really have no other options; check https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Indoor_Mapping first for alternatives)
2) It uses vanilla JS/HTML/CSS. This is a decision I question in hindsight, as it made state and UI management unnecessarily difficult. But it seemed right at the time, given the need to minimize long-term maintenance (i.e. JS framework churn) because of the limited dev resources available in the museum and nonprofit worlds.
3) It's better than nothing :)
I wish I had the time and resources to rewrite this whole thing from scratch, having learned from this experience. I'd fix a ton of bugs, change up the UI, clarify the symbology, and maybe try to push some of the indoor-specific features as proper upstream PRs to OpenLayers & QGIS rather than just hacking them into this app as one-offs.
I think having a "proper" open-source frontend indoor mapping solution would be a great boon to many museums, art galleries, airports, malls, colleges, etc. Google Maps actually does a pretty good job at this for certain places like airports (e.g. SFO: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6164644,-122.3859568,17.78z), but their process for that is totally opaque, and it's never clear to me how an institution can ask for their space to be mapped like that (or submit their own?). Even when I worked at the museum, we could never figure out how to actually get their map of us corrected. It's still missing all the floors and many exhibitions are in the wrong places: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8661273,-87.6169018,20.06z
Maybe I'll pick this up again someday and try to work on it as a side project...
(Speaking for myself only. I don't work there anymore.)
I don't know if the map's made people's lives any better, or just a little more annoying, maybe =/ Personally, I would've preferred a regular paper map on the back of a brochure, which can be both much bigger than a phone screen and not require any learned UI interactions. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be stopped using paper maps during COVID (a decision I tried to fight, unsuccessfully). So our visitors could either use this map on their phones or not have one at all. In that sense, I guess it was better than nothing...?
At the time we built this (a few years ago), indoor mapping (as opposed to the typical outdoor street mapping of Google/Apple/OSM/etc.) was a pretty niche area, and the commercial solutions we saw were all some combination of 1) expensive, 2) slow, 3) clunky, 4) too proprietary, or 5) not mobile-friendly.
So we set out to make our own... with a budget of $0 and a dev team of 1 inexperienced web dev (me). It was the first time I ever worked on a web map, and trying to hack indoor areas and multiple floors onto it was... a challenge! It's got a lot of problems (it's laggy on some phones, editing the geometry is a huge PITA, UI isn't great and has bugs, branding/marketing imposed many restrictions, etc.). Honestly, it's pretty jank code that I wish I could rewrite from scratch. We had a whole roadmap of planned improvements and cleanups, but our team was forced to moved on right after initial release.
But on the plus side:
1) It's free and open-source: https://github.com/arcataroger/openlayers_indoor_map (but it's abandoned and I wouldn't recommend using it unless you really have no other options; check https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Indoor_Mapping first for alternatives)
2) It uses vanilla JS/HTML/CSS. This is a decision I question in hindsight, as it made state and UI management unnecessarily difficult. But it seemed right at the time, given the need to minimize long-term maintenance (i.e. JS framework churn) because of the limited dev resources available in the museum and nonprofit worlds.
3) It's better than nothing :)
I wish I had the time and resources to rewrite this whole thing from scratch, having learned from this experience. I'd fix a ton of bugs, change up the UI, clarify the symbology, and maybe try to push some of the indoor-specific features as proper upstream PRs to OpenLayers & QGIS rather than just hacking them into this app as one-offs.
I think having a "proper" open-source frontend indoor mapping solution would be a great boon to many museums, art galleries, airports, malls, colleges, etc. Google Maps actually does a pretty good job at this for certain places like airports (e.g. SFO: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.6164644,-122.3859568,17.78z), but their process for that is totally opaque, and it's never clear to me how an institution can ask for their space to be mapped like that (or submit their own?). Even when I worked at the museum, we could never figure out how to actually get their map of us corrected. It's still missing all the floors and many exhibitions are in the wrong places: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8661273,-87.6169018,20.06z
Maybe I'll pick this up again someday and try to work on it as a side project...
My trading algorithms have been profitable, and I enjoy the freedom that money brings. I appreciate the things it allows me to buy and the experiences it unlocks. More importantly, it positively impacts the people around me
Did you write the algorithms as an independent trader or part of a firm?
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Exact same except with my crack cocaine business.
Would you mind giving some insight to your approach?