Inspiration
In recent years, more people than ever before are being affected by mental health or are overwhelmed setting up goals for the day. In addition, we are often moving so quickly throughout our day-to-day lives that we forget to stop and reflect on our day and how it went. We wanted to create an app that makes the important but mundane task of journaling and reflection easy and seamless through SMS messaging.
What it does
Daily Journal allows users to easily keep a record of their most important tasks throughout each day and reflect on their daily lives. Once a user signs up with their phone number, they will receive a daily text message that asks them to respond with the tasks they would like to do for the day. The app then keeps a record of the user's responses and sends periodic reminder messages to the user throughout the day. In addition, every night the user will receive several questions via SMS that asks them to reflect on their day using simple phrases or emoticons. The responses from users are stored in a database and displayed visually to users in a dashboard.
How we built it
The application is built using JavaScript with React.js in the frontend and using Python with Flask in the backend. It also uses Firebase for persistent data storage and user authentication as well as Twilio in order to receive and send interactive SMS messages.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge we initially ran into was brainstorming potential ideas and narrowing the scope of the project in order to create a minimum viable product (MVP) within a 24-hour period. Another minor challenge our group ran into was setting up the development environment, which was an important step that impeded our progress significantly at the beginning of our development.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of our accomplishments is that we were able to find an important use for and incorporate Twilio into our project since it was an API and resource that we have not used before.
What we learned
For some of us, it was the first time working with many of the application’s technologies, including Flask and Firebase. As a result, we were able to learn about and explore multiple new technologies. We also learned about how to plan and work efficiently as a team using tools such as Git and Trello to build a full-stack application that benefits people's mental health, allowing them to reflect on their days.
What's next for Daily Journal
In the future, we plan on expanding Daily Journal by creating a dashboard page that users can visit for a personalized summary report of their activities, including their daily ratings and brief descriptions. This will allow them to periodically reflect on their weeks and plan for the future. We may also enable users to optionally submit information regarding their interests or locations to match users based on similar matching preferences.
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