My Reps
Mission Statement
The “My Reps” app was created with the aim to empower individuals with easy access to crucial information about Massachusetts state senators and representatives. I believe that understanding how government works and having easy access to information about legislators is essential for civic education and engagement. By providing a user-friendly platform that offers comprehensive profiles of Massachusetts state senators and representatives, delve into detailed profiles, and explore pertinent details about bills, committees, and district representation. With a user-friendly interface, the app enables seamless searches for legislators based on location, and facilitates direct communication through email and phone calls. Ultimately, My Reps fosters active engagement with elected officials and the legislative process, to bridge the gap between citizens and their government, promoting transparency and civic involvement.
Functionality overview
My Reps app provides users with comprehensive information about Massachusetts state senators and representatives, offering a user-friendly interface to access and interact with legislative information. Users can effortlessly:
- View a comprehensive list of senators and representatives serving in the Massachusetts state government.
- Access detailed profiles for each legislator, offering in-depth information about their bills, committee memberships, voting records, and district representation.
- Utilize a robust search feature, allowing users to find legislators by entering their address, city, or zip code. This feature provides convenient access to representatives based on the user’s location.
- Connect with legislators through various communication channels. By clicking on their email addresses or phone numbers, users can initiate phone calls or compose emails directly from the app, enabling effortless engagement with elected officials.
Implementation
I decided to utilize Android Studio for app development, leveraging my proficiency in Java, a language I had been mastering throughout the year. The home screen of My Reps is depicted on the right. One of the most challenging aspects of creating this app was initially relying on web scraping techniques to gather data from the Massachusetts General Court website. However, I encountered performance issues as the app was running sluggishly due to the data retrieval process. To tackle this challenge, I opted to gather and store the data in a Firebase database. This strategic move significantly enhanced the app’s speed and responsiveness, resulting in a smoother and more efficient user experience.
I implemented adaptive techniques to accommodate any changes in the website’s layout, ensuring consistent and reliable data retrieval. This proactive approach proved instrumental in overcoming the initial performance limitations, ultimately delivering a more responsive app to users.
Testing
Arguably the most important part of app development is continuous testing. Whenever I implement a single feature, I make sure to test it extensively. As I found bugs, I made sure to fix most of them.
Target Audience
Students and Public
Resources
Android Studio – IDE to develop for Google Android Shared Preference – Data retrieval from the MA general court website. Then migrated to a firebase database.
