BigSister

Breaking barriers to healthcare, our web app utilizes LLM to offer anonymous guidance on abortion, connecting women with nearby clinics & practitioners. Accessible, confidential, and essential.

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Inspiration

We were discussing common healthcare barriers for women around the area, and we were upset with the recent abortion debates in the States. Despite the advanced technological state of modern society, many women face stigma in their sexual health, leading to bright individuals having to undertake life-altering decisions at a young age. According to a recent study by WHO, over 45% of induced abortions are unsafe, often with drastic consequences. With sexual education being such an important aspect of human life yet so little sources offering that knowledge, we were inspired to create an accessible and anonymous solution for those who lack a supportive environment. We thought we could create an all-in-one companion for someone who may be scared and frightened - someone who drastically needs a friend: Big Sister. By providing anonymous and untraceable sources so women all over the globe can access the support they deserve, we hope to build a brighter future for all.

What it does

We wanted to build a responsive web app to bridge this information gap, and also provide actionable solutions for women to seek the help they need. User safety and anonymity are big themes in BigSister. The BigSister web app mainly:

  • AI Chatbot [Live]: answers custom anonymous questions
  • AI Chatbot [w/ Prompts]: provides AI-generated question prompts and answers for users who don't know where to start or have difficulty typing
  • Interactive Google Maps: showcases nearby abortion clinics based on user's location
  • Safe & Anonymous Forum: fosters a safe community via a forum where users can anonymously ask and view questions to health practitioners

How we built it

Our team had 3 developers and 1 designer / frontend developer!

  • Patti designed the mockups in Figma, developed the global aesthetic / styling in Chakra UI, and programmed the responsive frontend in React. She utilized Spline to develop 3D mockups for the UI. She also integrated TinyMCE API for users to intuitively post forum questions to health practitioners
  • Katie worked on displaying the nearby abortion clinics by integrating Google Map's API and created an interactive map on the frontend to show not only the location but also the contact details of the clinics
  • Chloé and Tricia both worked on integrating the cohere API in the backend, an LLM that provides AI-generated answers, and developed a seamless chat experience for users to ask dynamic questions.

Challenges we ran into

Aside from pulling an all-nighter, we ran into some classic merge conflicts... thankfully none of our changes got lost forever. One challenge was displaying the chatbot and user responses in a seamless conversation, updating dynamic data in real-time in the frontend took a big chunk of our time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're really proud of the technical complexity of our web app. We have full frontend implementation of our UI design, (8 complete responsive webpages across 3 breakpoints), and fully-functional individual technological features that we managed to create under the extreme time constraints. We are also excited of the potential it has to impact the future of women's health. We also love the accomplishment of designing with accessibility in mind and overcoming the complexities of a LLM.

What we learned

We gained a great amount of experience in building an entire web app end to end. Not only that but researching about abortion gave us an even deeper understanding and sympathy for those who choose to go through the process.

What's next for BigSister

Possibly branching out the existing features to support other topics related to women's health, like sexual health or menopause. We would also love to make the app more educational by providing modules across different topics on women health!

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