What Our Application Does

The app is intended to first gain background information about the user and then prompt them for information about their mental health, including activities they engaged in during the day, the emotions they currently feel, physical sensations they have, and their internal thoughts that may have affected their behavior.

What Is the Purpose of the App

Our app is to detect if the user shows symptoms of social anxiety or depression and categorize what the user inputs into specific levels. The app gives suggestions on what the user should do in order to overcome the challenges the user is facing.

What Inspired us to create this app

Our app addresses a need for detecting symptoms of mental health issues. We are inspired not only by our personal observations, but also the general decline in mental health that often affects teenagers. We have leveraged technology to provide awareness and guidance, aiming to make a difference in an individual's well being and mental health, so that we can ensure that every person, regardless of their access to healthcare services, has a chance to pursue positive change in their mental health.

Functionality (what our app does and its main features)

• User profile creation: The user can create a profile with basic information, preferences, and other necessary background information. Option to set up an account with privacy measures.
• Daily Check in: Allows users to enter daily activities, emotions, and thoughts. Timely reminders to ask the user about their well-being in the times that they select, be it in the morning, afternoon, or evening.
• Learning Hub: Articles, videos, or resources on understanding social anxiety, depression, and general mental health topics.
• AI Conversation: The app obtains information about the users' mental health by developing chats with the user as if it is a “friend” of them. Using AI, the app analyzes the conversation.
• Feedback: Using the information the user inputted, the app can analyze patterns and detect potential signs of various mental health issues, such as depression, BPD, anxiety, and paranoia.
• Notifications and Reminders: Personalized reminders for users to check in.
• Privacy: ensures that the user data is encrypted and stored securely.

Development process

We made our app on Bubble.io, which lets us create a user-friendly experience without coding. Our app, centered around social anxiety and depression, uses Artificial Intelligence to chat with users and spot patterns in their feelings. We kept it soothing and easy to navigate, knowing the topics about depression can be heavy. After a bunch of tests and debugging, we finally got it to work. We used tools and technologies like built-in User Authentication (simplifies the process of user sign-up, logging in, and profile information), Analytics & Logs (understands user behavior, detects bugs, and refine the user experience), and also API connectors (using other services or external data).

Challenges

1. Insufficient Time:
   • Challenge: While we had high hopes for this project, we were unable to practically finish it in the time given. We originally intended for the program to have the user sign in with an account and provide their name, but were unable to come up with a way to do so.
   • How we overcame it: We created a bot that can interact with the user and provide advice for their mental health issues without addressing them by name or taking account of their age. Even due to the time crunch, we still made the program interactive for the user to enjoy.
2. Cell Configuration:
   • Challenge: While setting up the app's interface on Bubble.io, we encountered many challenges related to cell configurations. Ensuring each cell displayed the right content and responded effectively to user inputs was more complicated than what we thought.
   • How we overcame it: To overcome the cell configuration challenges on Bubble.io, we looked into Bubble's tutorials and watched many videos which helped us gain insights and solutions from experienced developers.
3. API Key Oversight:
   • Challenge: Integrating different services, especially the AI engine, required the provision of API keys for authentication. There were instances where the API key was omitted or excluded, causing integration failures and disruptions in the app's functions.
   • How we overcame it: To overcome this challenge, we implemented an integration checklist, ensuring every step was verified before deployment.
4. Data Types:
   • Challenge: We couldn't correctly identify the difference between “Basic Types” and “Data Types”. This led us to many bugs, incorrect data storage or retrieval, and even crashes.
   • How we overcame it: We overcame the confusion between terms like "basic type" and "data type," by establishing clear definitions. We went back to our code multiple times, re-running it, and finally understood the difference between the two which solved the problem. After we fixed this bug, once we inputted text in the textbox

Accomplishments

Creation of a Phone-Like Interface:

We managed to improvise our front-end design by making the GUI take the form of a phone with a text message app open. The program initially asks the user how they are doing, the user’s response is placed inside of a secondary text message, and the bot’s response is placed in the third text message, giving the program a more realistic appearance.

Learnings

App Development Program Knowledge:

We learned very quickly that in order to succeed in building apps using software effectively and quickly, having an intuitive knowledge of app development programs is vital. It allows us to improvise beyond what the instructions and video guides tell us and create unique features that are innovative.

Coding Knowledge:

In addition to app development programs, we also learned that having an intuitive sense of how coding can be used to create apps is vital to navigate each step of the design process. Without knowing about technical terms such as action listeners and events, app development in this hackathon proved especially challenging.

Future Plans

As we continue our journey with our mental health app, we will introduce more personalized Artificial Intelligence-driven perceptions for users, which can increase the depth of our Learning Hub with interactive modules. In the future, we will also explore collaborations with mental health professionals to integrate live counseling options/feedback as well. Behind the scenes, we plan to refine our data analytics to better predict and address user needs. Additionally, user feedback will remain paramount, guiding the introduction of new features and improvements.

Programming Language

We primarily used the visual programming environment provided by Bubble.io. This means that while traditional coding was not involved, we designed logic, database operations, and user interactions using Bubble's drag-and-drop interface. For more advanced features and API integrations, we utilized Bubble's built-in tools and connectors.

Built With

• bubble.io