GROWTH

An Android app that helps you track your personal growth with your own plant friend.

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Inspiration

While the overwhelming prevalence of social distancing has greatly halted the spread of COVID-19, helping to ensure the safety of countless numbers of citizens, simultaneously it has also led to a drastic decline in both mental and physical wellbeing around the globe. With these uncompromising restrictions limiting both our freedom and overall well-being, GROWTH aims to offer a practical solution to these pressing issues related to the rapid deterioration of health, by giving the user the opportunity to nurture their own household plant and companion, as a means to promote both mental and physical wellness.

What it Does

GROWTH offers the user the unique opportunity to develop deep and extensive connections, during this unprecedented time of sweeping isolation, fostering a unique social relationship with an unexpected companion. Through the continual care of an extraordinary, household plant the user is able to observe the development and cultivation of their own virtual companion, and along the way they might also be able to observe substantial growth within themselves.

GROWTH also utilizes conversations and interactions with the user’s plant companion as a means to collect sets of data, which are then used to track and gauge the user’s overall physical and mental wellness. Each response is stored and saved, which allows this app to serve, in many ways, as a digital diary tracing and storing one’s general wellbeing on a day-to-day basis.

Additionally, GROWTH utilizes its own process for analyzing and displaying information gained through organic conversations. These sets of data are also displayed through a number of different graphs serving as visual representations of one’s health over an extended period of time. Comparing a list of previous responses to current answers, working to plot and track both improvements and deteriorations in one’s overall wellbeing.

How it is Built

We built it using Unity (creating the interface), C# (the actual objects, interactions, scripts), and SQLite (storing and displaying user data)

Challenges We Ran Into

One of the biggest challenges we ran into throughout the course of this event pertained precisely to the collection and storing of data. As this was our first time trying to implement such a feature, we had no idea whether or not our information should be saved through the use of cloud storage or rather through the implementation and use of local data files. We eventually decided to use the latter, as a means to not only store information, but also as a way to quickly access previous responses in order to make comparisons.

Similarly, we also faced challenges when it came time to actually display the data we gathered, as we wanted to present information through the use of dynamic graphs, which would update every time new stats were received. The version of Unity which we used didn’t include any pre-built graph functionalities, so we spent a lot of our time researching how to create these graphs from scratch, without the use of any costly graphing tool packs sold separately.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

This was our group’s first introduction into the realm of mobile applications, as all of our prior projects were developed solely for use as computer programs. So with this in mind, we are especially proud of the vast leaps in knowledge which we were able to undergo throughout the course of this competition. General processes associated with mobile application development had to be learned on the fly, but even with our limited scope of knowledge on the subject, we were still able to bring the core vision of our overarching idea to life.

Similarly, we are extremely proud that we were to create an entity which actually feels alive. Beyond common questions which the plant regularly asks the user, it also has its own bank of brief quips and remarks which are at random, a feature which ultimately helps the companion to feel that much more dynamic. Similarly, if a user’s responses seem to indicate that they might be feeling particularly sad on any given day, their plant companion will actually try to tell a joke or give a few words of encouragement, in an effort to make the user feel just a little bit better. It’s these little details which make the product so much more believable, and it’s these seemingly simple additions which we are extremely proud of.

And most importantly, as a team, we are collectively proud of the fact that we were able to create a product, which actually has the ability to improve the everyday lives of its users. Whether that be through the presentation of data which works to promote both physical and mental wellbeing, or simply through the meaningful interactions spurred by one’s playful exchanges with their trusted companion, we are overwhelmingly glad to say that our program aims solely to help people around the globe.

What we Learned

We learned a lot about the general processes and workflow associated with developing a mobile application through the utilization of Unity.

But our biggest leaps in knowledge were observed in our overall understanding and comprehension of data. This was our group’s first time creating a program centered primarily around data, and through this single project we were able to develop a number of useful skills pertaining to the collection, manipulation, and analysis of collected statistics.

What’s Next for GROWTH?

When thinking about overall improvements which can significantly add to the experience of our application, the first thing that comes to mind is the continued development of the plant companion and it’s interactions with the user. In this aspect of our program, there are numerous different layers of complexity which we hope to add heading into the future, for example adding even more dialogue remarks to the already supported bank of comments, adding significantly to the overall depth of the plant companion.

Similarly, we all have mutual ambitions of utilizing the data we collect through the app on a much broader scale. Through the use of cloud storage and the compliance of users, we can possibly collect and compare data of people coming from completely distinct regions across the globe. Utilizing these references to uncover even more meaningful pieces of information related to wellness, for example unearthing numerous sets of data which detailing how geographical and social differences can ultimately lead to variance in one’s overall perceptions of personal well being.

Although we are extremely proud of the product in which we were able to create, there are still countless numbers of features which we can’t wait to implement, as soon as we get a good night’s rest!

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