Ask Marge

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  First screen on page load

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Inspiration

I have a teenage son. He has a lot of questions, but he doesn't always know how to ask them. When he wants to know about sex he doesn't feel comfortable talking with his teachers. He's somewhat comfortable talking with me and his dad, but we all know those conversations can feel weird. I wouldn't want him to "just google stuff" because he could end up on adult-only websites, or maybe see some pictures he should not yet be seeing. I believe that is the case for a lot of teenagers today. And that's why I created the website Ask Marge.

What it does

Ask Marge gives predefined answers to a variety of sex related topics. At the same time, Marge is very respectful of the user's privacy. It does not save any cookies or cache.

The second feature of Ask Marge I am happy to present, is the unopinionated avatar. Website users can freely choose an avatar for them and for the bot. I think uncomfortable conversations can be more comfortable if we get to decide who we have them with :)

How I built it

I built Ask Marge as a website on top of Create-React-App. I deployed it with Netlify. I contact Wit.ai through fetch requests.

Github Repo link

Challenges I ran into

The biggest challenge is trying to anticipate the user's questions. I wanted to make sure I include as many utterances as I could possibly think of. I am not a native english speaker, so I hope I didn't forget too many things.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I'm very proud of the accuracy of my Wit.ai bot. I also think the UI of my website is going to be appealing to teenagers.

What I learned

I learned a lot about Machine Learning! I didn't know it was that simple to train a bot. And I loved the satisfaction of adding a slightly changed utterance and seeing my bot recognize the intent automatically.

What's next for Ask Marge

Ask Marge needs a more mobile-friendly version. I would also love to add a little Information icon in the top right corner, where the users can click at any time and read what the page is about again, and where I would add links to all the great cartoon images I used.

Built With

• create-react-app
• netlify
• react