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New Tab Opening Screen
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Chrome Extension Pop Up
Inspiration
We’ve all been feeling down with the myriad of events happening so far in 2020. From the pandemic to the stress of racial disparities to killer bees, we’ve made a peaceful chrome extension that will hopefully boost your productivity. All of us enjoy and have encountered the beloved character Isabelle from the Animal Crossing video game. She’s a fan-favorite to many people besides us due to her soothing nature yet hard-working attitude. Since her job in Animal Crossing is a secretary, we thought that we could use her skills to be our secretary outside of the game and into real life! Isabelle will support you with achieving your goals and tasks all while being calming and nice.
What It Does
Shih Tzu Secretary is an extension that features a custom page and a clickable extension interface made for people who spend a lot of time on their web browsers. Instead of the default new tab page for chrome, you are greeted by a cheerful canine secretary who offers several features that help with day to day productivity such as a calendar and a to-do list. To incentivize users for using the app, they are able to gain bells (application currency) that allows them to purchase customizing clothes for Isabelle to wear. In addition to the custom page, there is an interface when clicking on the extension button. From there, a user is able to check and edit their to-do list, set up a work/productivity timer, access the in-game store, and can even check the time on our real-time clock. Bonus feature! We’ve even added a playlist of songs for entertainment.
How We Built It
For the visuals, we used Figma for collaboration/feedback and used Illustrator to help with the finer details of our visuals (since Figma is a bit clunky at times). After receiving some beautiful prototypes from our designers, it was time to dive into the code. Many of us had experience building websites and working software, but creating a project on the fly with no structure is another beast all together.
Challenges We Ran Into
We needed to figure out how to actually create a Google Chrome Extension. After struggling with the opening tutorials, we dove headfirst into the project. There were many bumps in the road, from syntax typos all the way to version control merge issues. Despite our lack of experience and knowledge while creating the technology, we still managed to create something that works and most importantly that we take pride in. Time was a huge challenge when it came to the visuals. We didn’t think that it would take so long to finish an illustration along with the UI designs.
Accomplishments that We’re Proud Of
We actually agreed on something that we all liked which motivated us to go through with this project! We’re proud of how well the project looks and how it interacts with the user. We spent a lot of time and energy into our projects and we can’t wait for others to check it out.
What We Learned
For illustrating, it took a lot of feedback gathering and time just to get it started. It was hard trying to visually create something that all of us had in mind and still make it look good in the allotted time that we had. Sketching out things or making things roughly as a start is very helpful to confirm what is the team’s vision and brings confidence to begin illustrating. Talking to each other is very important since we were able to support each other and figure out what is feasible for all of us to implement.
What's next for Shih Tzu Secretary
We hope that the Shih Tzu Secretary can be used regularly. Isabelle will be there to support you with your productivity and personal goals all while being kind-hearted and soothing. We want this to be something that is not only helpful but entertaining.
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