Amity

Inspiration

The pandemic was our main inspiration because it made people isolated and scared of the virus. It separated us. That is why we wanted to design an app that will bridge the gap and provide students with their physiological and safety needs and heal their love and belonging issues. During our brainstorming session, one of our members recalled receiving a care package during finals week, and it felt incredibly warm and comforting. We wanted to provide something of comfort to relieve the stress college students experience. Across the world, College Students face numerous of amounts of stress in regard to their studies and balancing a social life. We thought: How can College Students find the freedom to connect to love ones as well keep their wellbeing up to date?

What it does

Amity encourages the acts of service and gift giving to form and bond stronger friendships over tough times. Amity connects to a user's student account and strategically checks in with their mood before a busy week. The method allows the app to gauge their emotional state to gradually prepare a support system in the forms of encouragements from close friends. Since the account will be connected to the student’s school email, their schedule will be linked, so AI can detect an upcoming busy week as well view their friend's current mood state. The main focus is the ability to prepare dedicated care packages to help meet their friends' physiological needs which they might otherwise neglect during a stressful exam week. Additionally, the user can also speak to an AI bot that assists them with various words of support to friends.

How we built it

We used a Miro Board to jot down our ideas and create wireframes. We used Figma to prototype.

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we ran into were the potential of monetization of the care package in the project via earning points or through a loyalty program. There was a possibility people might take advantage of or abuse the program if we emphasized too much on packages. To alleviate this issue, we implemented majority DIY focused gifting methods. We also limited the number of care packages to only 3 per year per student and gifting available only after finals week. We also limited mood logging to specific exam weeks according to said university's schedule.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the wireframes we created in such a short amount of time and love how it turned out. Even though we struggled a lot with our care package idea, we still managed to tie it towards a mood tracker!

What we learned

In our user research, we were able to use the data we obtained and turn it into something valuable and psychological by quantifying it through Miro by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Surveys indicate that they want a familiar person (loving & belonging) or a new practical item (physiological & safety needs) from a close friend to relieve themselves from the hectic college life. Studies from various journals and articles demonstrated that giving and receiving care leads to a greater chance of higher mental wellbeing!

What's next for Amity

We would add more features such as a map that will help the students find nearby resources such as shelters or free food around their area. We would definitely add a page for gifts that allows users to see their history of gifts received and gifted along with the mood they have experienced.

Built With

• figma
• miro