Nurture Notes

An Organized Journaling Interface for Caretakers with Extended Functionality.

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Inspiration

My mother is a caretaker for special needs. Watching after her brother Jonathan throughout his entire life, my mother explained to me once an issue she'd been having with organizing her various documents. Over the years, her online documents of journal entries (when she would reflect at the end of the day on what Jonathan had learned, what had made him happy or upset, and whatever activities they'd done together that day) would grow so long, that they would become quite challenging to navigate through, especially in search of specific dates and memories. And that's when I resolved to design an application, which could organize journal entries, in a format most similar to a book, with some extended features such as checklists for goals, search bar functionality, and an image gallery for capturing every golden moment.

What it does

This application essentially allows a user to write and flip through the pages of his or her journals with ease, creating a more comforting feel to the editor. It implements straightforward organization over years, and allows caretakers of all kinds to track progress through goals, write reflective narratives through the use of interactive (generated but customizable) prompts, and a simple way to collect memories, whether into the photo gallery, saved journals, or saved pages.

How we built it

I started by adding the basic files for a flask application, organizing them into the static and templates directories. I then proceeded to develop the home page for the first few hours (only frontend), and afterwards created the routes in my flask app to connect it. I spun up my local server in debug mode, and began adding pages, as I added tabs in the header on my home page. I used html, css, and javascript to develop the frontend of my web pages, creating a consistent color scheme and adding cool features with css transitions, that really added flavor to the user experience.

Challenges we ran into

My greatest challenge throughout this hackathon was developing the backend. I focused primarily (entirely) on making everything aesthetic and comfortable to caretakers, which consequently caused my neglect of making things actually work. For example, my search bar has no functionality, as I lacked the necessary time to develop it. However, it does look pretty good. :)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Honestly, my coolest achievement in this project was the interactive envelope on the home page. When a user hovers his or her mouse over the envelope, it opens, revealing an invitation to create a free account. I found this really practical and fun, and (I'm not going to lie...) I may have spent a little too much time, just staring in awe as it opened and closed, revealing and then concealing the registration form so beautifully.

What we learned

Throughout this hackathon, I have learned that backend development is important to do in step with frontend development. Rather than do as I typically would and create an application's frontend before even considering it's ability to function in the backend, I plan to develop both ends somewhat incrementally in future projects, that in the end I may have more to show the judges than some pretty colors and animations.

What's next for Nurture Notes

With my free .xyz domain, I have plans to get this app available to the world, where caretakers everywhere can have their workload lightened, their stress lessened, and the focus deepened, so that they can truly concentrate more on the lives and feelings of their patients.

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