Venout

In a world where young people suffer from the burdens of emotions alone, Venout provides a chance to let your emotions and get help, all without having to talk to a real person!

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Inspiration

After seeing so many people our age struggle with health issues and not be able to express their feelings to anyone, we decided that something HAD to change. So, we came up with a place where people in need could get the help and advice they deserve without having to actually connect with a real person! This shred of an idea later became Venout, a python program that allows the user to let their guard down and talk about anything they would like without having to "burden" anyone!

What it does

Venout provides users with a free space where they can say whatever they want to say whenever they want to say it without holding anything back unlike most people do when talking to other people. The hook with Venout is that it is fully automated. No human would look over their answers, but they would still get feedback about it, just like it would be if someone actually was instigating it. This dissipates discomfort, stress, and fear of oversharing and is the best place to share all of your thoughts as a result.

How we built it

After brainstorming and planning many ideas, we decided to go with Venout because of how much mental, physical, and social health has affected us personally. Prasi created the Python backend to play out how our dream bot would work. To create a python bot with the capability of replacing an entire app, Prasi created many interactive site sections, like the vent-based health improvement tips and the FAQ things too. However, after facing many internet and time problems, we decided that it would be best if we just ramped up the python program and created the stunning frontend we had prototyped in Figma another day. So, Prasi turned to Replit and Github, two great platforms that encourage code collaboration and productivity, to create Venout!

Challenges we ran into

At first, we both decided that we wanted to make Venout a mobile app using React Native. However, Samiksha, the best front-end developer out of the two of us, ran into internet troubles and time inconsistencies (one of us uses EST and the other PST) late during the first day of the hackathon, we had to greatly simplify all of our project plans and make a short, graphic-less python program. Prasi, the main back-end, created the python program because of limited front-end resources and time. To do this, she had to convert elements that were normally just "there", like the FAQ section into something interactive and fun to entertain the user. So, she created the interactive question and answer system where the user chooses a single question to look into as many times as they would like! However, we are both very proud of what we accomplished considering all of the mishaps that occurred this weekend. Although it is not a reflection of either of our best work, we still think we did well considering the time and experience constraints we got through.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are both very proud that we made strides in a field that we believe in and that we care about instead of just throwing darts at a board and choosing something that doesn't affect us personally. We are also proud of pushing through and actually submitting the project since there were MANY moments when we thought we would never make it. We are also extremely proud of ourselves for never looking down and being creative with our ideas, like the interactive FAQ section or the tips based on the rants. Being pushed down so many times was actually a blessing for us because it forced us to think of new, creative ways to handle our problems! Even though we didn't exactly create something that FAANG companies would fight for, we are still proud of ourselves for creating something with the capability of helping people who need it most.

What we learned

We both learned how to use Figma, a platform that we have both heard of but never really tried, to create a prototype for our front end (spoiler alert- it looks rea(ct native)lly cool :))). Prasi also learned how to properly write into files in python (although the feature has yet to become public) and think like a problem-solving, error-kicking coder. We also learned how to keep cool under a lot of pressure when obstacles just keep coming, an extremely helpful art indeed. The fact that we learned this in our first year of hacking and high school is sure to be extremely helpful for the rest of our lives, and we are probably not going to be forgetting PioneerHacks anytime soon ;)

What's next for Venout

We would both love to add graphics to Venout and transform it into a more interactive program! We would exchange the "type Y/N" prompts for buttons that had both of the full words on them! We also plan on creating a report doc where people can flag their vents if it seems not to have been classified correctly, and we could use that to add to and improve the program itself. However, this "red flag" doc would only be optional, preserving the main goals of Venout.

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