Scrum Report #6

[chris-46]

Tell us what you did, and what you would do next if you were continuing with the project work.

Towards the end, I worked on completing my preferences survey set of features. At the start of the term, I proposed that we should have surveys the user fills in to tailor their itineraries. By workshop 5 I had created a modal popup window that shows up on successful user sign up: a form prompting user preferences upon signup, carefully selecting key questions to create personalized vacations. For the rest of workshop 6's period, I proceeded to integrate these preferences into the MongoDB user collection and apply/tailor prompt engineering to generate unique itineraries and days based on user inputs. I also contributed in creating the presentation slides, particularly the challenges slides and was active in the discussion leading up to our presentation decisions.

If I had more time to continue with the project work, I would:

• Work to integrate the preferences survey to be a button/modal that pops up when generating an itinerary instead of a button in the user profile.
• Work on creating multi-user messaging features.
• Work on creating a itineraries that can be shared via links, that'd be super cool.
• Create more complex AI generation that filters events better for less duplicates, and tailoring responses to budgets/preferences better.
• Super far-fetched, but maybe add functionality to book things like planes/rental cars.

C.T.

[matts421]

Tell us what you did, and what you would do next if you were continuing with the project work.

In the final sprint, I worked to personalize itineraries to each user, ensuring that the frontend only showed a user's own itineraries. As an additional feature, I decided to develop PDF generation functionality for itineraries. This took a lot of time as I made an HTML template with styling similar to the frontend UI from scratch. I also spend time in making UI changes and API changes to the backend to support this new functionality. In the end, I was able to deliver a core feature of our product that allows users to view their itineraries offline.

If I had more time to continue with the project work, I would:

• Add additional guardrails on the AI models to ensure our application could not be abused by malicious parties
• Spend more time restructuring our architecture and consider deploying our website with a more robust cloud-provider (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Add OAuth and allow sign-on with Google or Facebook accounts
• Investigate ways to reduce cost in a production setting so we would not be charged so heavily for the AI and Google Maps use.

M.S.

[jiayinkralik]

Tell us what you did, and what you would do next if you were continuing with the project work. I helped make the browsing page in the final sprint. If I were to continue with the project work, I would focus on several key areas to further enhance the functionality, usability, and overall user experience of the AI itinerary app:

• Improve the AI algorithms to generate even more personalized itineraries by incorporating additional data points like user travel history, preferences based on past behaviors, and real-time travel trends.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) Integration: Allow users to input custom requests in plain language, such as "I want a beach vacation with cultural experiences," and have the AI generate a tailored itinerary.
• Expand the calendar functionality to include reminders, notifications, and the ability to sync with more platforms, like Apple Calendar. I would also explore integrating task lists and packing checklists within the calendar.
• Improve the interactive map feature by adding more detailed layers, such as public transportation options, nearby attractions, and user-generated content (e.g., photos and reviews).
• Given the mobile-friendly site already in place, the next logical step would be to develop a dedicated mobile app. This app would offer offline access to itineraries, push notifications for travel updates, and integration with mobile-specific features like GPS.
• Introduce features that allow users to collaborate on itineraries with friends or family, share their itineraries publicly or within groups, and offer a community-driven gallery of popular trips.
• Partner with local tour operators, restaurants, and guides to offer users the ability to book experiences directly through the app. This would not only enhance the value proposition but also create a more immersive and localized travel experience.
• Enhance the CI/CD pipeline with more automated testing (unit, integration, and end-to-end tests) to ensure that new features are rolled out smoothly without introducing bugs.

J.K

[nand2246]

Tell us what you did, and what you would do next if you were continuing with the project work.

In the final sprint, I worked on securing our backend API endpoints, by requiring all of the projected data endpoints to receive an authorization token in the headers. I also worked on cleaning up our project repository by refactoring directories to organize component files and renaming components to have more clear names.

If I had more time to continue with the project work, I would:

• implement an itinerary-sharing functionality, so that users can view and edit itineraries together, and share their plans with family and friends
• Implement a feature that considers multiple users' preferences to create an itinerary, allowing itineraries to cater to everybody's preferences.

N.P.