Our Fancy App & the Superheroes who Make it Work
Mark Swardstrom
Founding Tech Architect
Trish O'Connor
Lead Product Manager
Siobhan Coady
Lead Developer
Our Tech Team
These giant-hearted and talented people elevate the way Loose Ends functions. In September 2023, Loose Ends launched our desktop app, and throughout 2024 we began to use it to collect finisher info, and to make thoughtful matches. Behind the scenes, this crackerjack team of programmers is continuing to develop the app with the goal of getting our working projects in there, and processing and tracking projects as efficiently as possible.
The App
In 2023, we primarily relied on Google Sheets for matching. Now, we can search the finisher database in our desktop app by location and find finishers skilled in specific crafts within any chosen radius, anywhere in the world.
This is what it looks like when we enter “Seattle, WA” in the location field. All of the blue dots are finishers who have signed up as volunteers - 912 crafters total.
Once we choose a craft (in this case, “knitters in Seattle, WA” we get an array of finishers within a specified radius. Left we see all of the volunteer knitting finishers, self-rated “beginner,” “intermediate,” or “expert.”
This technological leap has allowed us to make thoughtful matches between people close to each other, reducing the number of irreplaceable projects that need to go into the mail.
If you’re experienced in Ruby on Rails and are Interested in joining our team of volunteer programmers, reach out here.