GreenCon Hackathon 2024

GreenCon Hackathon is an engaging and intuitive competition organised by the Greentech Apps Foundation. It began its journey back in 2023 with the goal of encouraging the members of Greentech to bring about solutions for people who are eager to learn the Deen but are facing some challenges. The purpose was to provide intuitive solutions so that the users find it interesting and rewarding to actively learn about our Deen. 

Alhamdulillah, Greentech has once again organised GreenCon Hackathon this year. The theme for the Hackthon was: “Seerah Navigator.” 

Theme: Seerah Navigator

Why We Chose This Theme

Seerah is an integral part of the teachings of Islam. This gives context to the verses of the Quran and the sayings of the prophet (SAW). Without studying Seerah, it’s impossible to have the same understanding of Islam that the best generation had.

Target Persona

The target persona for this theme is “Practicing Barirah”. She is a practising Muslimah who knows a major portion of the Seerah. But she fails to: 

1. Recall
2. Relate to 
3. Visualise

the events from the Seerah. 

Seven teams participated in this competition. All of them are internal team members of the Greentech Apps Foundation. Each of the participating teams brought their own solutions to solve Barirah’s problem in their own way. 

Project 1: Seerah Lens

Participants:

Araf Mohammad Mahbub, Abid Hasan Snigdho, Shahriar Nasim Nafi

Description

An interactive Seerah timeline based feature that will help Bariah actively recall, relate to, and visualise different events from the Seerah. 

Key Features: 

1. Timeline based Seerah Reminder
2. Clickable Quran Ayahs
3. Related photos and animation videos
4. Text to audio listening feature (in future update) 
5. List of events with lessons 
6. List of people central to Seerah
7. References from Quran and Hadith

Takeaway from Survey

1. Many users are unaware of the major portion of the Seerah
2. Many users struggle to recall key events and relate to lessons from the Seerah

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Events and lessons will help Barirah recall Seerah.
2. Lessons from events will help Barirah relate to Seerah.
3. Maps, images, and animations will help Barirah visualise.

Project 2: Living the Seerah: Where Our Life Fit (2^nd Runner Up)

Participants

Shehab Ahmed Sayem, Maharah Hossain Opi, Minhaz Muktadir

Description

A lesson-driven Seerah application where users can jump to different relevant Seerah events from different lesson categories. A user can backtrack from lesson categories and jump to related events from the Seerah and relate their own lives to different events of the Seerah.

Key Features: 

1. Search from lesson categories and read related events
2. List of appendices 
3. On this month’s list where all the related events of that month will appear
4. On this day notification where related events from Seerah will pop up as a notification
5. Location of Major events marked on the map

Takeaway from Survey

1. Most users find it difficult to relate to, recall or visualise events from the Seerah
2. Most users either find it very helpful or extremely helpful to relate occurrences in their own lives to relevant lessons from the Seerah.
3. Most users find it very useful and extremely useful to choose from lesson categories and read different relevant Seerah events. 
4. Most users find it interesting to see real images and visuals of locations of major Seerah events. 

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Lesson categories, on this month & day notification will help Barirah recall
2. A list of appendices and maps will help Barirah relate
3. On this day & month notifications and maps of major events will help Barirah visualise.

Project 3: Minhaj: Story of the Prophets (1^st Runner Up)

Participants

Newaz Sharif, Eusha Abdullah, Bin Yeamin Chowdhury

Description

Multiple features in the existing Seerah app, where the users will be able to take notes, listen to audio, make bookmarks and much more. 

Key Features: 

1. Take notes
2. Listen to audio (Speech to text)
3. The summary card at the top
4. Full view like Facebook stories
5. Bookmark with different colours
6. Family tree of the Prophets
7. Progress based on reading events
8. Tap and hold to highlight text. Different colours can be added for different tags. 

Takeaway from User Feedback

1. 75% liked flash cards and highlighting for quick recall.
2. 50% liked the family tree for better visualisation.
3. 50% suggested to show contextual topics on relevant days. 

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Active recall
2. Bitesize info
3. Learnt things from quick access
4. An easy and concise summary
5. personalised note for own learning
6. Relatable short lessons and findings

Project 4: Seerah Map:  A Smart Way to Learn Seerah

Participants

Md. Ashraful Haque, Maksudul Hasan Rakib, Julhas Biswas

Description

A custom map of 5th century Arabia and relevant places integrated into the current Seerah app to help users recall, relate to, and visualise different aspects of the Seerah.

Key Features: 

1. Prophetic Timeline Map with zoom-in and out feature
2. Summary of the event
3. Bookmark option to any point on the map
4. Map <> description
5. Navigate users to the previous and next event

Takeaway from Survey

1. Users struggle to visualise Seerah events from pure text.
2. A positive response regarding the visual guidelines like the map. 
3. The importance of a short summary is to recall the events.
4. Bookmarking map places will enable future lookups.
5. Seerah’s timeline in the map is a user demand.

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

With maps of relevant places, Barirah will be easily able to visualise different Seerah events. Also when she clicks a particular place in the map, she will be able to see a short summary of the different historical events that took place in that place. This will help her recall and relate to different events from the Seerah. 

Project 5: SeerahQuest: Exploring Life’s Path Through the Seerah (Winner) 

Participants

Asif Bin Latif, Muhammad Galib Shams, Timam Bin Saif

Description

An application to motivate the users to have a quest for learning Seerah their entire lives. 

Key Features

1. Chapter wise summary
2. Quiz and assessment system
3. Progress tracking
4. Audiobook and roadmap view
5. Event notification system
6. Map location with icons
7. Customise theme

Takeaway from Survey

1. Users struggle to read Seerah because it is too big. So, a summary would be helpful.
2. Most users think that it is either a must-have or good to have to keep track of reading progress.
3. Most users think that adding a map in the Seerah app is either a must or a good-to-have feature. 
4. Most users are comfortable with listening to audio podcasts.
5. Dark mode can help many users concentrate. 

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Chapter-wise summary, quiz, and event notification system will help Barirah recall
2. Audiobook and roadmap view, map location will help Barirah relate to different Seerah events
3. Map location and roadmap view will help Barirah visualise different Seerah events

Project 6: Seerah Exploration

Participants

Fahim Hasan, Golam Kader, Shuaib Mahdee

Description

A module in the existing Seerah app incorporates maps of historical places which will be integrated with Google Maps with an easy and functional filter system. 

Key Features

1. Advanced but easy-to-use filter to filter out certain categories of historical locations
2. Location card which contains a summary of the events which took place there, the event period, and images
3. Navigation to the next and previous location
4. Timeline view of the historical events

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Map and timeline will help Barirah recall the events better
2. Map filter will help help Barirah relate to different events
3. Map and timeline will help Barirah visualise Seerah’s events

Project 7: Al Qaswa

Participants

Ridwan Bayezid, Riaz Mahmud, Asadul Haque

Description

A way to active, conscious learning and recalling and in-depth understanding and visualisation.

Key Features

1. Progress bar
2. Mark as read, mark as listened
3. Key learning points
4. Recalling and spaced repetition
5. Quiz
6. Short bio of Sahabas
7. Illustrations
8. Links of Maps

How Will It Solve Barirah’s Problem? Here’s How: 

1. Illustrations and links to maps will help Barirah visualise.
2. Key learning points and quizzes will help Barirah recall.
3. Illustrations and links to maps will help Barirah relate to them.

Conclusion

May Allah reward all the participants in this competition. Also, Jazakallahu Khairan to the mentors and organisers for this amazing event.