Happy Thoughts

Happy Thoughts is a project that aims to provide a space for students to see and share happy little things (whatever they are) in their lives as a way to improve each other's mental health.

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Inspiration

We wanted to create a quick way for students to get some happiness and inspiration from fellow students, as well as a way to make ‘doom-scrolling’ potentially relaxing.

What it does

Happy-Thoughts is a web application designed to empower students by providing a space for them to anonymously share inspiring thoughts, experiences, or images with their peers. The aim of the app is to foster a positive and supportive community where students can uplift each other and find motivation during their academic journey.

How we built it

Node.js for backend development. Firebase database integration. Frontend technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the user interface.

Challenges we ran into

Charlie: Setting up the Firestore database and figuring out a method to simultaneously incorporate image uploads into the database while storing the address.

Corey: Getting the cards to scale nicely and stick to a good aspect ratio without taking up too much of the screen or compromising mobile support. Working with a server and getting functions to work between multiple files/pages. Also, all the asynchronous functions.

Nickolay: Creating filtering system for a database

Polina: Integrating .json data into the layout in a visually pleasant way; figuring out how to work with the “.addEventListener” method when the element it refers to only loads after DOM.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Charlie: A functional database that users can read, write, and add images. The hackathon is a good brush up on JavaScript Skills.

Corey: Making the cards dynamically choose a side to display based on if the user had submitted an image, text, or both.The site layout, in general, came together really well and we all worked quickly to get an MVP established.

Nickolay: Filters and html modals are working as planned

Polina: Coming up with a proper and intuitive website layout/UI quickly and on the spot

What we learned

Backend Development with Node.js Asynchronous function calls in JavaScript Firebase Integration for the database management Git Conflict Resolution Bootstrap CSS modification.

What's next for Happy Thoughts

Depending on feedback from the judges and peers, we will decide if we want to continue working on the project. If we do decide to continue production, we would need to implement a proper user login flow and work on making our database calls more efficient. We can add advanced filtering options to allow users to customize their feed based on specific categories and tags. Also, we can introduce tools for community moderation, such as reporting inappropriate content or flagging spam, to maintain a positive and safe environment for users.

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