I'm looking to create an app for both iOS and Android that alerts people when the river is about to overflow, especially since my town in Malaysia faces annual flooding which can be deadly. Tragically, there have been recent incidents where people died during the floods, and I believe a simple alert system could potentially save lives. I have little to no coding experience, so I'm wondering how long it might take to learn the necessary skills and what resources I should start with.
I want to know:
1. What topics should I study, and should I learn while developing?
2. Which programming language should I use for a multi-platform app?
3. How simple can I keep the app?
For the flood detection hardware, I'm considering using Arduino and wonder if it will suffice. Is there something more effective out there? Is this whole project realistic, and how much time should I expect to invest given that I have a full-time job? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
4 Answers
Definitely pursue your passion! While it will take several months to make a prototype, using a single codebase framework, like Flutter or React Native, could speed up the process for you. Start with a minimum viable product to gather feedback and refine from there. And yes, collaborate with local universities or tech communities to help build this out; you don’t have to do it all alone!
Using Arduino can definitely work for building the flood detection part, but it might take some additional hardware setups depending on how you want to alert people. The critical challenge will be building a reliable infrastructure for detecting water levels. You could look into more advanced sensors that might be available locally. Involve your community and possibly reach out to schools to collaborate. It’s a lot to handle alone!
Great tip about collaboration! Getting local schools involved could really amplify your project.
Building a flood detection system is definitely a big task, especially on your own. For the app, it’s a great start to learn some basic coding principles, and I recommend focusing on courses related to mobile app development. You could learn as you build, but having some foundational knowledge would definitely help. As for the programming language, using something like React Native might be a good choice since it allows for multi-platform development. The app itself should be relatively straightforward. Simple alerts based on flood detection data should suffice to start!
Totally agree! Starting with React Native will save you a lot of time since you can code once and deploy on both iOS and Android.
You're onto something, but just an app alone won’t solve the issue. The real heavy lifting is the hardware and the sensors that need to be placed effectively. Maybe start with smaller goals - like connecting your app with existing flood alert services, instead of building everything from scratch. This could be a great community project!
Absolutely, leveraging existing services can save time and resources!
Love this advice! Collaboration could lead to amazing results for your project.