Study Ghibli

Inspiration

During online school last year, it was especially hard for many students to stay productive and motivated as well as connect with peers. In an effort to resolve this cycle of procrastination, we identified an important element to staying productive: keeping one another accountable. To this end, we developed an online platform, Study Ghibli, that would engage users in productive studying by facilitating a calm environment with relaxing music in conjunction with online peers to keep each other accountable.

What it does

Study Ghibli is a productivity platform which allows users to select Ghibli themed virtual environments to study with. A defining feature of our platform is that there is an option for users to study in the company of people online, in order to keep each other accountable for studying productively. In the virtual environment, Study Ghibli provides users with a countdown timer to track the time spent studying and also provides a space for users to add their goals and assignments they wish to achieve during the study period.

How we built it

We designed our project by first creating a wireframe and then implementing our prototype on Figma.

Challenges we ran into

Firstly, none of us had any experience with using Figma, so getting started was very challenging. The Figma interface was also difficult to navigate in the beginning since the purposes of several functions and editing tools were unclear. Secondly, translating our ideas onto a website platform and planning out exactly how we were going to implement our prototype was hard since we had to account for several details, from the order of the pages of the website to creating buttons that made the user interface easier to use.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One notable achievement that we are proud of is our meticulous attention to detail. We tried our best to create an easily accessible and functional user interface while also decorating our prototype with vibrant themes. Since our coding skills were still intermediate, we focused our effort on graphic designing such as following a retro concept and creating smooth transitions.

What we learned

Our entire team started with no prior knowledge on how to use Figma or, for that matter, what software to build our prototype in the first place. By the end of the 24 hours, we have gained a solid understanding of the basics of Figma and UI/UX design. In addition, we have learned how to collaborate better as a team and how to exchange ideas and execute them. Lastly, this was our first hackathon experience, so that in itself was a new learning experience.

What's next for Study Ghibli

In the future, we plan on bringing Study Ghibli to life by developing it into a functional website for our users. Additionally, we plan on creating a points and leaderboard system as an incentive for our users to stay focused for extended periods of time. By accumulating points, not only would users be able to climb up the leaderboard, but they would also earn more customizability options for their profile. Another feature that we plan on adding is for the user to be able to choose what songs and playlists they want to play as our current platform pre-selects songs for the user. Lastly, Study Ghibli also plans on giving the user an option to study in a private room with friends as an additional tool to help users keep each other accountable.