Inspiration
Data from the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that 49.5% of teens have experienced some form of mental health issue. Because of this, all members of our group have directly or indirectly experienced what living with mental health issues is like and how they affect one's motivation. After researching the causes and symptoms of common mental health issues, we were disturbed to see that isolation was both a cause and effect for many mood disorders and were inspired to create an app that can help make checking up on the mental health of friends easier.
What it does
Nova provides a way to monitor your own mental health and provides a less emotionally exhausting way to keep your friends updated on how you're doing on a daily basis. Because sleep is such a large factor in mental health, the sleep tracker allows you to log your sleep every day AND automatically shares how long you've slept with your friends to help keep you accountable. The mood-tracker section encourages introspection and helps you monitor how you do each day, making it easier for you to reflect on how you're doing and when you may want to seek help. The resources section contains helpful tips summarized from recognized institutions such as the CDC and NIMH and a crisis button. This leads to the crisis page which allows fast access to many national hotlines and a button which can be used to alert all of your friends to check up on you. The friends page allows you to input phone numbers that will be stored and directly messages them with updates whenever you save on a page.
How we built it
Our team utilized the platform Android Studio to build our app. We recognized that it was an advanced platform, but due to tutorials and online videos guiding us in our process, we were able to implement our ideas onto the Android Studios platform. To update and access the code many team members worked on and modified, we used Github to push and pull each other's code to ensure everyone had a part in the app development process. We also used the Realtime Firebase platform to help us store data in our Sign Up and Log In. Furthermore, our designs within the app are all artistically designed with input from all of our team members. Backgrounds and layouts are also created from scratch within our app.
Challenges we ran into
During our process, we ran into many challenges that required debugging and further research. One of the challenges was the process of storing data on Realtime Firebase, and through our mentor's help, we solved our problem. Other challenges included debugging issues that we faced since we were all primarily new to Android Studio, but we were able to solve our issues through constant trial and error. Overall, our main challenge was the limited experience. Still, through the hard work of all of our members in accomplishing tasks every week, we were able to develop critical thinking skills in coding as well as app development that will help us in the future.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Because none of us had direct experience building an app with Java, the completion of this project was a huge accomplishment in itself! Many of us did not have any experience with Java before creating this project but were able to learn enough to still contribute to the app. Additionally, we believe that our UI turned out very aesthetically pleasing without being too overwhelming for our users and is very easy to use. What we are most proud of however is how we have grown as a team--whether it be learning new things about each other in late-night voice calls, recording together and trying not to laugh, or figuring out how to navigate conflict positively--we have grown tremendously as individuals and a group.
What we learned
We were able to gain many hard skills such as video recording, filming, editing, programming, researching, and art through this project. Additionally, the research we did on how mental health issues are caused and worsened allowed us to recognize patterns in our behavior that worsened our mental health and minimized them. Furthermore, we became much better at effectively communicating with each other and with professionals such as representatives from the Kellin Foundation.
What's next for Tokay
We hope to upload our app to the Android app store and formally publish it. We then hope to discuss the potential of our app and gain more feedback from a local mental-health-focused non-profit the Kellin Foundation. Specifically, we plan to present our app to the organization, make any suggested changes, discuss if implementing this app in our community would be beneficial, and discuss how to best do so.
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