Inspiration
This project was inspired directly by the challenge of designing for real-world constraints in women’s shelters, where the barriers to wellbeing are not a lack of information, but the conditions people are living in.
Many women in shelters are navigating: emotional stress, shared living environments, caregiving responsibilities, and unpredictable routines.
In these conditions, even simple actions can feel overwhelming.
What stood out to us was not just what people were going through, but how that affects their ability to act.
There are moments where you know exactly what might help, but you can’t bring yourself to do it.
Not because you don’t know, but because everything feels like too much.
Most tools try to help by offering more advice, more resources, more steps. But in moments of cognitive overload: attention is fragmented, energy is limited, even small decisions feel heavy.
We realized the problem isn’t information, it’s the ability to start.
SideBySide was built around that insight.
What it does
SideBySide is an anonymous, community-powered platform that helps women take one small step when everything feels like too much.
Users can share what they’re going through and receive real, actionable steps from others who have experienced similar situations.
Instead of long, overwhelming advice threads, every response is structured to begin with:
one simple step you can take right now.
The platform allows users to: post anonymously, tag their situation (e.g. childcare, mental health, finances) filter and browse relevant posts, view responses from people in similar contexts, and access short, structured answers designed for immediate use
Tags also help surface voices from similar lived experiences, allowing users to find support that feels relevant, relatable, and grounded in reality.
How we built it
SideBySide was built using a rapid, code-first prototyping approach, prioritizing speed, simplicity, and usability within hackathon constraints.
We developed the interface using Java with the Swing UI framework, allowing us to quickly create a lightweight, interactive system that could run without relying on complex infrastructure or external dependencies.
Data is handled through in-memory Java objects, which enabled fast iteration and simplified state management during development.
Rather than designing in external tools, we sketched initial layouts and flows before implementing them directly in code. This allowed us to continuously test and refine whether the experience felt usable in low-capacity moments.
Throughout development, we focused on: minimizing cognitive load, reducing the number of decisions required, structuring responses for immediate action, and ensuring interactions could be completed quickly.
We intentionally built for real-world constraints, designing a system that works in environments with: shared devices, limited time and attention, and inconsistent access to technology.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was designing for users who may not have the capacity to engage with traditional interfaces.
We had to constantly ask: Is this too much to read? Does this require too many decisions? Can this be used in under 30 seconds?
Balancing simplicity with usefulness was difficult, especially when designing a community-based system that also needed to remain safe and supportive.
We also had to think carefully about: accessibility across different literacy levels, language diversity, and preventing harmful or unhelpful advice.
Designing for real-world constraints meant letting go of feature-heavy solutions and focusing on what would actually work in practice.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of building a platform that reframes how support is delivered.
Instead of giving more information, SideBySide: reduces cognitive load, lowers the barrier to action, and centres real, lived experiences.
We are especially proud of the structured response system, which transforms community input into something that is immediately usable, even in moments of overwhelm.
We also designed a system where each community space is shaped by the people within it, making support feel more grounded, relevant, and human.
What we learned
We learned that the hardest part of solving a problem isn’t always understanding it, it’s designing for the moment when someone can’t act on that understanding.
Small design decisions, like reducing the number of choices, or placing one clear action first, can have a huge impact on whether someone is able to move forward.
We also learned that community support becomes far more powerful when it is: structured, relatable, and easy to act on
Most importantly, we learned that: We learned that the hardest part of solving a problem isn’t always understanding it—it’s designing for the moment when someone can’t act on that understanding.
Small design decisions—like reducing the number of choices, or placing one clear action first—can have a huge impact on whether someone is able to move forward.
We also learned that community support becomes far more powerful when it is:
structured relatable and easy to act on
Most importantly, we learned that: sometimes, helping someone take one small step is move impactful than giving them the perfect answer.
What's next for SideBySide
We designed SideBySide with real-world implementation in mind, and there are several areas we would continue to explore:
🌍 Translation support to make the platform accessible across languages 🔊 Audio features for users with low literacy or limited focus 🛡️ Content moderation systems to ensure safety and prevent harmful advice 👥 Staff integration tools to support monitoring, engagement, and bridging access for residents
Our goal is to ensure SideBySide remains: accessible, safe, and usable in the environments it is meant for
When everything feels overwhelming, even one small step can feel impossible. But seeing that someone else has taken that step can make it possible. SideBySide helps women take that step—together.
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