MeeX

Inspiration 💡

When one hears the word 'exploration', one imagines themselves going out to discover new things, novel places, meeting strangers. However, there is another aspect to exploration that is inward: self-discovery.

What MeeX does ✍🏾

A daily journaling app that prompts you to free-write for five minutes every day. When the notification comes up, you just have to click on it to be taken to a text box with a customized prompt, depending on how you feel, to write away.

Carefully curated music will be played in the background based on a brief mood questionnaire when you check-in (happy, energetic or sad, angry, stressed, etc.) Meanwhile, an open-ended prompt will serve as your writing starting point for that day. For example, on a good day, it asks you to record the fun memories (and consequently help you realize what you love to do/passion) or verbalize your frustration/stress or (the first step towards resolving that negative feeling) on a bad day.

At the end of the session, a follow-up mood meter will be presented to ask you how you feel after laying out all your thoughts (and thereby customize what future prompts you will receive based on what is individually effective). You will also be recommended a location nearby to write your tomorrow's prompt (eg. Central Park for someone who lives in NYC or your favorite coffee shop) as nature, interacting with other people, and simply walking/light exercise has been shown to improve your mood.

How we built it 🛠️

We learned to use Figma and then built the prototype model using it and incorporating different features into the app. Initially, we had a plan to include the NLP model into the app as well but due to certain challenges and shortage of time weren't able to do it.

Challenges we ran into 🛑

Originally we were going to add an element of machine learning to the project to improve the smartness of the program. Specifically, one of our members (me, Tuna) thought of a natural language processing model that could analyze the user's response to gauge their sentiment towards the end of the writing prompt vs at the start of writing.

Immediately there were issues. The technical problem was that we could not manage to set up the Natural Language API due to the service account credentials failing to verify. However, there was also the ethical/logistic issue even if we managed to implement it that was only brought to my attention while struggling to troubleshoot the connection error. We realized that journaling is an incredibly private act where one typically carries out confidentially as they are at their most vulnerable when sorting out their feelings. To analyze their writing without explicit permission would be a big violation of this trust the user has for the app. Not only that, all the machine learning processing would have to take placed on the cloud which requires us to upload the user's personal data to the cloud, leaving it vulnerable to malicious cyber attacks. So in the end, it is better to store the journal responses on-device to avoid all these thorny ethical and logistical problems, and just go with a manual step (which also has the benefit of being more accurate. No matter how good the NLP model is at guessing your sentiment, only you know how you feel).

Accomplishments that we're proud of 🍾

For all of us, this was either our first or second Hackathon. We are happy that the simple product we have created can so tangibly help people. Understanding the user and what they need is what

What we learned 📚

We learned a bunch of stuff from how we could different tools to build our products and what was to be done after building the project aka its expansion, market, and how many people will actually use this? The creation of a 'persona'—a fictional person created as a stand-in for our target audience—as proposed by our most senior/experienced team member, Jesiree, in order to navigate what the userbase actually need and what features to add that would maintain both measurably improve the app while maintaining its simplicity.

What's next for MeeX 🧭

MeeX could end up becoming a personal social media but just for you, your experiences, and your feelings. We plan to use machine learning models to predict what destination or place would be right for the mood of the user and make it as personalized as possible. Most importantly, more user feedback will be crucial in telling us where to take the app. It is an honor to be picked by the user to aid them in their journey of self-discovery so we are motivated to constantly reevaluate our app and mission. MeeX is all about examining ourselves, learning, and pushing our limits.

Built With

• figma