The Genki Ala Wai Project Website
Partner organization: The Genki Ala Wai Project
Team members: Matthew Creed (Business ’25), Kimberly Daniels (Biomedical Engineering ’25), Ella Dunne (Computer Science ’25), and Jared Seehusahai (Mathematical Sciences ’25)
Download the team’s final presentation.
The primary goal of this IQP was to assist the Genk Ala Wai Project nonprofit by creating a new website for them. The Genki Ala Wai Project is a small organization under the Hawai’i Exemplary State Foundation working to restore the Ala Wai Canal: a major waterway in Honolulu and one of the most polluted waterways in Hawai’i. They are doing this by using “Genki Balls” and Effective Microorganisms (EM-1®) treatment. The Genki Ala Wai Project had a previously existing website, but the individual working on it left in late 2023. This meant that Genki Ala Wai could no longer update, access, or change the data and information on their website. To solve this problem a new website needed to be made, which is where our team came in.
Our team designed the website with several primary goals. We needed to streamline the process for individual citizens and sponsors to host/join events, which was accomplished by implementing a calendar linked with a form to manage sign ups and inquiries. We also needed to supply Genki Ala Wai with a way to handle donations, which was incorporated through a Squarespace asset and PayPal. Additionally, we wanted to allow the Genki Ala Wai Project to better tell the story of the canal. To do this, we created an interactive quiz to engage younger users alongside a page dedicated to the history of the canal.
Our team built the website on Squarespace. This was because Squarespace is a website hosting platform designed to allow individuals without technical backgrounds to create and update websites. By design, this would allow the project members of Genki Ala Wai to continue updating and expanding the website after our project was completed. Our new website was loosely based on Genki Ala Wai’s previous website. However, through our methodology of researching, interviewing, designing, implementing and refining, we were able to create a new and unique product that met the needs of our sponsors. In our final deliverable we solved the Genki Ala Wai Project’s main issue of not having an updatable website and provided them with new capabilities for handling donations and event requests. In the process, we also helped reduce time spent managing event logistics, provided a platform to better explain their mission and progress and seek help from others more easily. Furthermore, we left them with a comprehensive list of recommendations and guides for continued support of the website; something that should help Genki Ala Wai in achieving their goals by providing them the capabilities and advantages of having a customer-facing website.