SoftShell

SoftShell connects individuals suffering from similar mental health conditions to each other, to create a support system that helps them get through their struggles and develop new hobbies.

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Event

Black Wings Hack, Spring 2021

Domain.com

SoftShell.online

Inspiration

So many people suffer from mental health conditions (such as depression and anxiety) and feel isolated and alone. They feel drawn inwards and don't want to burden others with their struggles. This is especially prevalent during the COVID pandemic. We were inspired to create a platform that would strengthen support systems during this time and help these people develop new hobbies.

What It Does

A user creates an account under a username and password of their choice to maintain anonymity and keep their privacy. They then fill out a short questionnaire with questions on mental health and hobbies to help determine their personality. The ratings are stars from 1 to 5 where 5 means they feel strongly about the question and 1 means they feel weakly about the question. These questions are tailored to several categories of mental conditions based on our research, including: anxiety, depression, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, and eating disorders.

Based on the ratings and responses the user gives, the user is recommended to group chats with others who responded in a similar manner. Rather than have the name of the mental condition, these group chats have vague chat names such as tree branch to be sensitive of if users don't want their condition to be identified.

The user can pick a room of their choice that has a couple of other anonymous individuals (small enough for personalization) and chat about anything they'd like, from ways to cope with their mental health to their own beloved hobbies. Shellder the turtle mascot offers cue cards every few minutes for conversation starters or hobbyist tutorials. Eventually, we hope that users will open up and confide in each other.

How We Built It

The front-end is built using ReactJS, with form inputs of user information passing through the ExpressJS framework of NodeJS and inserted into the CockroachDB database. A specific user's information is then fetched and group chats with users who responded to the form in a similar manner are displayed. The user can then click on one of these chats and start talking to other users.

We made our designs on Powerpoint.

Challenges We Ran Into

This was a relatively short hackathon, so our main challenge was attempting to narrow down the chat room idea to something feasible within the time frame - we would've loved to implement more complex features! We ran into issues fetching with ExpressJS at times, and had difficulties communicating with our teammates due to the remote structure.

We also had to keep our audience in mind, sometimes thinking a lot about the specifics of the app. We wanted to avoid being insensitive or diagnosing users as regards their mental health, as well as accidentally revealing private information. We solve this by not revealing the results of the questionnaire, not revealing the user's name, and keeping the group chat's name vague. Overall, these challenges were a great learning experience, both in terms of remote collaboration and software development.

Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

We thought deeply about the needs of the target audience, thinking about what information, either coming from them or coming from others, would be reasonable and not insensitive to reveal. We also thought about how to help users open up in the group chat in case they are initially shy, which came in the form of Shellder the Turtle who would greet users as they came in.

We're happy that we were able to successfully connect to CockroachDB, which none of us were familiar with. There was little troubleshooting help online, so we had to rely mostly on documentation. We're also happy we could connect the ReactJS and NodeJS to the database. We also love our user interface and its sleek, clean look!

What We Learned

We learned how to successfully connect to CockroachDB, and that mental health issues can be complex in terms of what questions to ask on the questionnaire. We also learned that there needs to be a lot of development prioritization with limited time so we needed to cut out minor features. Collaborating virtually, especially in a technical environment, was difficult, but we made sure to communicate as much as we could and give regular updates on our progress.

What's Next for SoftShell

We want to conduct extensive user testing and research to fully understand the different categories of mental conditions and how symptoms differ in each, as well as how to ask questionnaire questions in a non-intrusive way. Through this, we can improve the back-end algorithm (possibly using Machine Learning) and make better recommendations for how to group people together in group chats.

We also plan to expand SoftShell to be more intuitive and user-friendly, and to make SoftShell's mascot Shellder an AI helper who is set to the chatroom's mood rather than a timer. Additionally, we might expand SoftShell into a mobile application and bring on licensed professionals for private chats. As COVID continues the next couple of months, we want to make sure people especially with mental conditions can find a safe space with others who can offer support and help them develop new interests!

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