EcoDawgs

Inspiration

The inspiration for this project came from people I know who work on the campus compost team.

They talked about how compost bins were often contaminated because people did not know what belonged in them or where compost bins were located.

Many students wanted to compost but did not have convenient access to clear information. Compost rules were usually presented as long lists or small signs that were easy to ignore.

This motivated me to create an app that makes compost education more convenient and also helps people locate compost bins on campus.

What I Built

I built a web application with the following features:

A compost sorting game that teaches rules through interaction
A Compost Bin Locator so users can easily find compost bins on campus

The game includes items that are commonly confused as compostable. In higher difficulty modes, visual cues are removed so players must rely on knowledge instead of colors.

What I Learned

Interactive learning is more effective than passive learning.

Making mistakes and receiving immediate feedback helps information stick.

I learned how to:

Optimize animations for performance
Manage real time game logic efficiently
Design simple interfaces that feel intentional

How I Built the Project

The project was built using React.

Animations are handled with requestAnimationFrame
Game logic is separated from UI updates to reduce lag
Difficulty is based on knowledge instead of speed

All difficulty modes use the same timing so harder modes test understanding rather than reaction time.

Challenges

One major challenge was performance.

Early versions of the game felt laggy because too much state was updating every frame.

To solve this, I reduced unnecessary re rendering and limited how often the UI updates.

Another challenge was designing difficulty that felt fair. Instead of increasing speed, I increased difficulty by introducing trick items and removing visual hints.