Inspiration
We wanted to build something that feels like a friend — gentle, non-judgmental, and always there. NeuroPal is designed to support neurodivergent teens through a simple, safe space that blends emotional tracking with AI-powered reflection.
What it does
- Tracks your mood and energy levels
- Helps you build supportive routines
- Shows weekly patterns in a calendar view
- Offers grounding techniques and mindfulness tools
- Includes an AI chat companion for emotional validation
How we built it
- React 18 + Vite for the frontend
- Cohere AI for compassionate NLP responses
- CSS Custom Properties for light/dark theme switching
- LocalStorage for offline data persistence
- Optional Cohere integration with fallback layers for AI chat
Challenges we ran into
- Designing a user experience that feels safe for neurodivergent users
- Creating visually clean calendar views with dynamic mood tracking
- Managing fallback AI responses when API isn't active
- Balancing emotional tone, clarity, and performance
Accomplishments we're proud of
- Clean UI that respects sensory accessibility
- Working AI support with fallback logic
- End-to-end mood + energy tracking experience
- Custom branding and design (including our logo!)
What we learned
- Designing for emotional UX and accessibility
- Rapid prototyping with React/Vite
- Using NLP APIs for human-centric interaction
- Building gentle, validating experiences without overcomplicating
What's next
- Add journaling and insights based on trends
- Exportable weekly reports
- Backend support for user profiles and data syncing
- Mobile-first app for better accessibility
Built With
- accessibility-first
- ai
- bolt.new
- chatgpt
- cohere
- css3
- javascript
- localstorage
- netlify
- react
- vite
