Constellation Lyra

Thesis Statements

Research from Lieberman et al. (2007) asserts that naming a feeling changes it. Affect labeling reduces amygdala response to negative emotional stimuli, and the precision of naming those emotion matters, as such people who experience their emotions with more granularity are, under intense distress, less likely to turn into harmful coping mechanisms (Kashdan, Barrett & McKnight, 2015). But granularity is a skill, and skills need vocabulary. Some people describe their emotional states in global terms—feeling bad—while others describe them specifically as angry and jealous. Asking someone to name what they feel assumes they already have the words for it.

Constellation is built on that gap. It supplies the vocabulary rather than assuming it—eight basic emotions, each with three intensity levels, taught during onboarding and available as a permanent reference. It captures emotions as an ordered sequence rather than a single label, because experiences move. And because granularity is measured by sampling experience repeatedly and examining the pattern of responses over time, the app accumulates those sequences until repetitions surface on their own.

Journaling becomes more valuable when it teaches people to name feelings precisely and when the accumulated record is connected rather than left as separate entries—so that recurring patterns become visible without the app telling anyone what those patterns mean.

Inspiration

Our group was inspired by a gap we noticed in how individuals processed their own emotions. We wanted to build something that made recording moments easier and understand that being vulnerable is hard. Many of us struggle to open up to others, and even if they wanted to, stressful periods like exam seasons or heavy workloads rarely leave enough time to properly regulate what they're feeling.

What it does

With the reference of our product, we have decided to build a digital journaling app based on the auction that we bid on during the opening ceremony, Project Constellation. Essentially what it does is it logs our experiences and presents a spectrum of emotions in which the individual using the app can select to best represent their emotion at the time. The program will then analyze the history and perform an analysis to show them an overview. This overview is simply an observation to allow the user to identify the patterns in their daily logs and ultimately assists the user in regulating their emotions.

How we built it

We started with React Native and Supabase. Node dependency problems kept sending us back to square one since one library needed a C++ compiler we didn't have, and no amount of version-juggling fixed it. We rebuilt with HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript on the front end and Python with SQLite on the back. The whole thing ran with no dependencies at all, which meant nothing left to break. We later moved the server to FastAPI.

Challenges we ran into

One of the most significant challenges we ran into was figuring out the stack. We lost our time because of dependency errors that had nothing to do with our idea and deciding that the "traditional" frameworks might work better.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Ultimately our team is most proud of being able to complete this challenge overall despite significant drawbacks. Our ability to come up with new innovative ideas to enhance the product that we were given, notably our monthly overview inspired by Spotify Wrapped.

What we learned

One of the most important lessons we learned was how to allocate our time efficiently to ensure that we meet the deadline while producing quality code.

Notable UX Modifications

Authentication and Authorization We added a sign-up system that allows users to create a new account and enter their names. Their names are used throughout the program—Lyra greets them during onboarding, and the daily check-in uses it—and therefore makes users feel welcomed. For users that already have an account and want to log their progress continuously, the sign-in process enables them to come back to the account.
Onboarding with Lyra Users that just signed up with their new account are greeted by Lyra, our own mascot, inspired by the northern constellation that contains Vega, one of the brightest stars visible from Earth. Lyra brings us guidance to understand our emotions by referring to Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions. We're doing this since one of the main user research concerns states that emotional labeling is still deemed as something unfamiliar among us.
Change of Emotional Tags Initially, the prototype used rectangular tags to select the sequence of emotion labels. We decided to change them into circles, each signifying planets of emotions and filled in with colors based on Plutchik's wheel.
Emotion Intensity Slider Initially, one slider was displayed for the whole moment. Now, as users add more emotions, a slider is displayed for each one at the same time.
Follow-up Questions We added a feature that allows users to look back at what arc of emotions happened the last time they were in this context. For example, it shows that the last time the users were alone, it was during late-night study with an arc of emotions from anger to fear. This gives increasing awareness regarding how people are experiencing things socially over time.
8 Basic Emotions Overview This overview serves as a learning point for users that want to recall the eight basic emotions. It also shows how emotions are logged based on the number recorded on each planet. Most importantly, for users that just signed up, the overview of planets isn't populated yet since not enough experiences have been made.
Journal Log History From the previous version, we created a looking back tag, where users could go back to their previous moments and add another one or two sentences after their mindset has been reframed or wisdom has been earned after a while.
Monthly Recap Inspired by Spotify Wrapped, we created the Constellation Lyra Monthly Recap. Users get a recap on how the month went, with statistics. This could be found in the circle symbol at the bottom of the My Universe page.
Patterns We added a tab for deeper insights into what has repeated across everything you've recorded.
Breathing Exercise Lastly, we added a breathing exercise as an extra feature. It acts as a tool that the user can choose to use whenever they want, since we did not want to turn Constellation Lyra into an app that demands engagement. This is just a feature there for users that need that extra bit of relaxation.

What's next for Journal Constellation

The wearable is currently simulated, so the first thing we'd do is connect a real one. Chest straps and most fitness bands expose heart rate over Bluetooth directly to the browser, which would let us test whether a prompt that arrives when your body actually reacted feels helpful or intrusive.

We'd also add transcription for voice notes. Right now they're stored as audio you can play back—searchable text would let spoken moments feed the same reflection features as written ones.

References: Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17576282/

Kashdan, T. B., Barrett, L. F., & McKnight, P. E. (2015). Unpacking emotion differentiation: Transforming unpleasant experience by perceiving distinctions in negativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10–16. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-07847-002

OpenStax | Free Textbooks Online with No Catch. (2025, January 22). @Openstax/Os-webview. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-behavioral-neuroscience

https://constellationlyra.onrender.com/