Inspiration
Our project was inspired in part by the growing number of teenagers in high school who are vaping due to social pressures, struggles with mental health, or the belief that it is a safe alternative to smoking. We observed students at our small school vaping and among them were our friends and classmates. Our goal was to bring to light the adverse effects that vaping could have on them mentally and physically and assist them in their path to quitting.
What it does
Our app provides a forum for individuals struggling to quit vaping to pace themselves on their quitting journey. The app has a journal feature to allow users to write down their feelings as more times than not, teens who turn to vaping do so as a result of depleting mental health or stress and letting those feelings flow into words is a method of healthily dealing with those emotions. Our app also has an animated lung named Bronchi who cheers the user on as they reach milestones on their quitting journey which they record daily, reinforcing their habit breaking and building skills.
How we built it
We created Breathe Clean using React Native as our framework, Node.js, and Expo. React Native is a mobile app framework based of off JavaScript that allows for apps to be rendered native to their OS environment. For our coding environment, we used Visual studio Code, and a little bit of Expo-Go and the chrome web browser for troubleshooting. Our first choice was Glide, but React Native seemed like it had more room for customization, so we decided to go with it instead. Using the React Native Framework and Expo, which handles the underlying interactions between React and the OS the app is interacting with, we used TypeScript to create, test, and finalize our app. There was also an abundance of terminal usage. While there were many moving parts involved, taking everything slowly and understanding why we used what we used helped to keep everything under control, without losing sight of our end goal.
Challenges we ran into
Our main challenge was coordinating work schedules and effectively communicating tasks while also dealing with issues like working on the same code at the same time. Through collaboration and a deeper understanding of React Native, we resolved these issues and carefully selected a development platform that balanced functionality and simplicity.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Our team exercised a commendable effort in terms of outreach within our community. We reached out to professionals with knowledge on school-related resources for teens struggling with vaping such as counselors in our school. Additionally, we reached out to individuals working in the field against tobacco control/prevention and even the general public to gain different perspectives and insight on how vaping impacts them on a personal level and society on a county level. Our team also finds pride in our capability to quickly formulate solutions when met with both legal and developmental issues that could potentially deplete our application of its effectivity. Several times throughout our planning and creative process, we came in contact with potential problems that could prevent our app from accomplishing its purpose and we ensured that we could quickly turn around and look for alternatives to those issues.
What we learned
We deepened our expertise in React Native, building on our initial experience while also developing crucial collaboration skills. Clear communication proved essential in avoiding misunderstandings and keeping everyone aligned, while constructive feedback helped us grow individually and as a team. Through teamwork, we discovered that even the most unlikely groups can create something meaningful together. By staying connected and informed about our app's progress, we combined our ideas to build something truly impactful.
What's next for Breathe Clean
In the future, Breathe Clean plans to implement features that allow the application to become more accessible to people who may struggle to interact with the current platform. Additionally, we have prospective ideas to create an application that is even less intimidating to balance an acknowledgment of the seriousness of vaping and creating a comfortable ambiance for our users. Among these are the implementation of a more gamified rewards system and additional informative animations when users reach milestones.
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