Inspiration
I was down $3,000 on stocks after the AI and semiconductor selloff, and suddenly my goal of reaching a $100,000 net worth by graduation felt a lot further away. At the same time, I had just landed a new position at another company. One part of my life felt like a setback, which some other part was better.
I wanted some sort of validation so I wondered how these two events affect my life's bigger picture. Was I still making progress toward the goals I have set for myself.
That became the inspiration for Joolie: a companion that helps connect everyday life to the dreams we set for ourselves. I have always wanted to document my life, but journaling alone never felt motivating enough. Giving those reflections a purpose made it something I actually wanted to do.
What it does
Our app helps users understand how their everyday experiences relate to their long term goals.
Users can set goals across life, career, money, and personal growth, then write or speak about their day. Joolie reflects on those entries, identifies relevant actions and setbacks, and connects them to the goals they are working toward.
Through Flow, users can turn a large dream into a visual roadmap with smaller steps and clear milestones. A growing virtual garden makes their effort visible, while an AI companion helps them reflect, plan, and manage goals and reminders through conversation.
The idea is to make progress easier to understand, especially when life gives you good news and bad news at the same time.
How we built it + Challenges we ran into
We built Joolie using Next.js, React, and TypeScript, with Tailwind CSS for the interface.
We integrated Google Gemini to generate journal reflections, transcribe voice entries, create personalized goal roadmaps, and power the conversational companion. For the visual roadmaps, I used React Flow to organize goals into connected steps.
One important part of the implementation was separating AI interpretation from progress calculations. The AI identifies relevant events in a journal entry, while application rules calculate rewards and validate updates. Milestone completion also requires supporting evidence from the entry, so earning points does not automatically mean someone has achieved their goal.
We also implemented local storage and backup functionality so users can save their space and return to it over time. (Will switch to supabase when scaling with more users later on). Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud to use our skills to create a website tailored to our users' mental and emotional well-being. Projects like this, which support those qualities, have to be designed effectively, and we believe this ability will help us create other projects in the future.
What we learned
We learned how to design an online application such that it's visually and mechanically appealing to the well-being of online users, especially those of different current backgrounds.
What's next for Joolie
We plan to upgrade the storage system so that users are able to use the program effectively, saving and restoring any goals or entries that are made on the platform. Site updates will also follow to mend bugs and add more content.
Built With
- gemini
- next.js
- react.js
- tailwind
- typescript
