Lucid Guide- Alpha Bytes 21

Inspiration

As students of the 21st century, we have only seen how prominent mental health has become and how crucial it is to learn about it during this day and age. We all have mental health, and there is a substantial number of people that do suffer from mental illnesses as well. It is a condition that can not be perceived by the human eye and therefore it is never spoken upon, and stigma surrounding mental health in its entirety exists. We need to start shedding light on this issue and begin to educate those around us about what exactly mental health and illness is, and how it varies so greatly from person to person. There is not one diagnosis, one treatment, nor one solution to fighting mental illness that is set in stone, and this is what inspires us; we need to change the way our society treats mental health and start to take this issue a lot more seriously. If you don’t bandage a wound, you will bleed; in similarity, if there are limited resources available to help treat mental illness, then people are on the verge experiencing very grave consequences. If no one else will step forward, we will take initiative to make that change.

What it does

Lucid Guide is an app to help people struggling with mental illnesses, something that brings a little peace to their daily lives. Our app allows for patients to track, record and analyze every aspect of their mental health, including the ups and downs. As our app carefully curates all the data that is put into it by our users into graphs and charts, it allows for them to keep track of their progress. Lucid Guides is also accessible across many platforms, the most recent addition including Apple Watch Series 3, 4 and 5. This provides convenient access to their data whenever and wherever they may be. This app also prepares resources to guide them in the right direction in terms of their own self betterment and well-being designed strictly for the personal needs of the user. We are a service that users can rely on for positive reinforcement at any time.

How we built it

To build our hack, we decided to use the software Adobe Xd. After we decided on the idea of “Lucid Guide” the app, we knew that we had to find a way to showcase our creativity accurately to the judges. By using this software, we have depicted clearly how we pictured the app to look on an iOS device, including all the speciality features that were made specifically for our users that suffer from mental illnesses. Adobe Xd shows our skills in creating professional, yet captivating designs, which is a staple in an everyday used app. Everything from icons, to theme colours were carefully curated by our team of four, to present the best version of the hack idea we’ve dreamed of.

Challenges we ran into

A specific challenge that definitely tested our abilities is the time restraint that was placed against us. Although the entire essence of the SPARK hackathon is to complete a hack within a short period of time, it really tests the technological and intellectual abilities of a team. That being said, we would like to proudly state that we have come across this hurdle with ease, as our best efforts were made with time to spare. The hack and pitch that we present to the judges consists of our hard work and dedication, which will create tough competition when it comes to the decision making. The combination of our passion for coding and the adrenaline rush provided by the short deadline has worked in our favour. One last challenge that we faced as well would be technological failures. Examples of this would include mp4 files not providing audio, or even as simple as not knowing how to import something into our software. However, these, in our opinions, were minor flaws, things that can be solved with a quick search on Google. Technological difficulties are ones that can’t be predicted, however, can prove to be a real test when attempting to resolve. In all, our team dealt with these certain challenges with ease and calm demeanour.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As a team, we persevered through all challenged that were thrown at us, and managed to create a stunning, innovative and essential app that we genuinely believe will be of use to many globally to aid them to reach their full potential and guide them in the right direction to combating mental struggles that we as humans face on a day-to-day basis. We are so incredibly proud of the work that we have done because we know we are a part of the change that we so desperately need to end mental health stigma and educate society on what mental health and illness truly is.

What we learned

In only 36 hours, we have learned a great deal about each other, the world of technology, and the skills required to collaborate and work efficiently. As a team, we are not very experienced with coding however, with the help of YouTube videos, and our incredible mentors, we learned a great amount of information on how to operate Adobe softwares. Second, because it has been months since we have worked together in teams, the hackathon truly exercised our teamwork, collaboration, and leadership skills, and really taught us how to get things done efficiently with an open mind and within an incredibly tight time frame. We also learned a lot about each other that include our working habits, and our individual strengths and weaknesses.

What's next for Lucid Guide

Lucid guide is an idea formed by four 11th graders in the spur of a moment, from start to finish in a total of 36 hours. The bare bones of it were designed and executed, however, there’s still more to go in terms of the completion of this app. We would like to make it accessible to everyone, of all illnesses, mental or physical, as all of them will have a reliable and secure app to access. We plan to publicize our creation and to increase our user base. Needless to say, Lucid Guides is going to be continued on into the far future, as it is the future of mental health.

Built With

• adobe-xd
• canva
• imovie