Rejct

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Personaliztion Options
Levels of Discomfort
Generated Prompts
Reflection Piece

Inspiration

Rejct was born out of the common fear of rejection/embarrassment and the idea of exposure therapy as a method to treat it. The methodology was inspired by SMART goalsetting framework, breaking goals into small, measurable tasks. To achieve growth, one must be consistent, thus more inspiration was drawn from the gamification of shopping and habit-forming apps to keep users attached.

What it does

Rejct offers users a low-stakes, gamified way to face their fear of rejection. Users select tasks based on their comfort level that day, and completing a task earns XP for their virtual pet. Completing the task earns XP, allowing their virtual pet to level up and get cool accessories! Bonus points if the user completes a short reflection after doing their task, helping them track and recognize their progress. Rejct turns the sometimes-difficult process of facing fears into a game, making growth feel achievable and motivating.

How we built it

Frontend: React, CSS, and Javascript.
Backend: Node.js.
User data/progress: MongoDB
Task Generation: Gemini AI

Challenges we ran into

Designing the gamification so that users would not be too bored or be discouraged. Tasks needed to feel rewarding and motivating, while still being approachable enough that users wouldn’t give up after a difficult experience.
Ensuring users felt in control and differentiating our app from asking a chatbot to generate the same prompts. Since the premise of this app is to make users go out of their comfort zone, we wanted them to have full control over their experience. This included clear indication of where and how AI was used, as well as tasks of varying comfort levels for the user to pick from depending on how they feel that day.

Accomplishments we're proud of

With not much experience in design, we were able to make a cohesive design with an overarching "retro" theme, as well as a cute cat avatar with CSS.
Balancing use of generative AI with a sensitive topic: we wanted users to feel their privacy is respected while still obtaining enough information for the AI to be helpful.
Being able to complete a working prototype within 24 hours!