COVIDsmart

Inspiration

We got inspiration from wanting to learn more about COVID-19 ourselves and educating others who might be in the same situation about tips, facts, and behaviors about the virus. Adults have access to the news and internet, but not all kids do so we were inspired to create a fun little app that teaches them. The app is intended mainly for kids, but everyone is encouraged to utilize it to spread awareness!

What it does

The app opens up on a screen that consists of four different buttons: “Click for Reward”, “Characters”, “Games”, and “Profile”. The first button rewards the user with credits-- that can be later used to buy characters via the character button-- each time they wear a mask outside. The character button takes the user to a different screen containing multiple different characters, each bought with 100 credits. The third button, “Games”, takes the user to a screen that shows the two games we have: flashcards and trivia. The former prepares the user for the latter and both of these games earn the user credits, which, like mentioned previously, allows the user to buy characters to set as their profile picture. Finally, the “Profile” button takes the user to a screen that allows them to change their character and show their name, current amount of credits, and how many times they have worn the mask.

How we built it

We first brainstormed ideas as a group and wrote them down on a shared document. A couple questions that we considered were, “Who do we want our target audience to be?” and “Are our ideas feasible in the limited time we have?”. Throughout our building process, we have continued to write important notes, ideas, etc. on the document to help us cooperate and keep certain things in mind. Once we finished thinking of all the features we would want in our app, we began to bring our thoughts to life. We wanted our app to be connected, relevant, and meaningful. Therefore, everything from our characters to our currency is significant. George Washington is not meant just to bring a smile to people’s faces, but to personalize our app. George Washington is often seen as a role model and is very widely known. People begin to learn about him as early as elementary school! Our hope is that if people see a figure as important as George Washington wearing a mask, others will follow by example. Each and every one of our characters represent someone or something that has improved people's quality of life as the pandemic continues. Not all the characters are necessarily people and the user is provided with extra information about them. For example, we created what we imagined Zoom as a person would look like and allowed it to be an option users could choose. For those who represent people, we made them to resemble their real-life counterparts. The badge symbolizes your dedication to keeping yourself and others around you safe by wearing masks.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we ran into was having enough time to add in certain features to our app. For example, we wanted to add a feature called “EPIC BOSS FIGHT” where the user can utilize their credit in order to “beat” COVID-19.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An accomplishment we’re proud of is the characters we made for the app. Designing them and writing their descriptions helped us learn more about the people involved with fighting COVID-19, while also getting into touch with our creative side . Another accomplishment we’re proud of is learning how to save values from different screens using TinyDB and experiencing more properties that MIT App Inventor has to offer.

What we learned

We learned the facts we used for the trivia and flashcards and how to create multiple screens on MIT App Inventor. We also learned how to use TinyDB to save work such as credit and profile pictures from different screens.

What's next for COVIDsmart

Next up on COVIDsmart, a new feature will be provided called “EPIC BOSS FIGHT”. In this feature, the app tracks the user’s credit on a bar, and once the user reaches all 800 points to earn all the characters, they can help defeat COVID-19 (the boss in this scenario) and earn a special status/badge. The badge you would gain would be our thumbnail to certify that you are officially COVIDsmart.

Built With

• mit-app-inventor