Buds

Study alone, but with a customizable companion and bgm

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Inspiration

In 2022 with the covid-19 pandemic, it is increasingly more difficult to find motivation to study alone, especially while in isolation. our studying habits have become more isolated and apart from the comfort of a companion. Our study sessions have become more collaborative with the technology that we use to increase productivity. The nature theme also reinforces the importance of enjoying time outdoors, helping to promote a healthy lifestyle and being conscious of the environment around us.

We regularly study with lo-fi music and virtual study buddies such as in Lo-Fi girl's videos. However, we wanted the ability to customize the study environment, including the avatar and music so as to create a more personalized experience and therefore increase the motivation to study.

What it does

Buds is a customizable platform for the study-er to curate their virtual environment that makes them feel close to nature.to what fits them best. Study-ers are welcomed to their individualized study session by prompts to select their current mood, time of day, and flower a plant study buddy. Buds offers the option to select nature music once studying with a buddy. The buddy’s time of day will sync with the study-er’s time of day. With the settings, a virtual study environment will be created with lofi music that fits the study-is best.

How we built it

Buds is a web application that uses Javascript for the front and backend (using ExpressJS and NodeJS) and MongoDB for the database. We used figma and Adobe XD for prototyping, and the artworks are original for Buds.

Music selection attributes: Coffee Shop by PYC Music | https://soundcloud.com/pycmusic Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/

BLOOM by Uniq | https://soundcloud.com/uniqofficial/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Coral by LiQWYD | https://soundcloud.com/liqwyd/ Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Mysterious Lights by Purrple Cat | https://purrplecat.com/ Music promoted on https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

On My Way by Ghostrifter Official | https://soundcloud.com/ghostrifter-official Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Challenges we ran into

Being able to allow for customization with music, avatar, and time of the day was a challenge for us especially in the ideation period, since we wanted to give the users the freedom to choose what they want but also give them surprises as to who their study buddy is and the setting/environment of the space. In the end we were able to find a middle ground where users could select the general tone of the setting they want and we provide them study buds and the music.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of the collaborative team effort in combining great ideas with original artwork and intuitive user interface.

What we learned

Using multimedia in web application, ideation process, design, backend technical challenges in offering customization options

What's next for Buds

  • allows for more customizability
  • will eventually plan to connect to other streaming platforms
  • in the future, plan to connect tasks to keep accountable
  • loop depending on the time of the day
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