The Gratitude Book

Inspiration

Our personal experiences have shown us the benefits of getting outdoors to combat quarantine fatigue, especially among students and young adults who are healthy enough to explore nature, and boost mental health. Our vision was to shed light on the good memories, like exploring the outdoors and sharing moments with family and friends. The visual nature of the collection of daily photos emphasizes positivity and reflection on better times.

What it does

The Gratitude Book promotes regular local excursions by providing accessible daily challenge prompts that emphasize simple aspects of nature. Users can see successful challenge images that have been posted in a 10 mile radius to discover new locations to visit that have been shared within their communities.

How I built it

We built the prototype using Figma, a collaborative interface design tool, that allows us to present a functional simulation. The simulation was then implemented using Xcode.

Challenges I ran into

While going outside can help people cope with quarantine fatigue, we were concerned that our application would promote in-person gatherings or relaxation of public health guidelines. We addressed this problem by encouraging location diversification and adding a list of reminders for common safety guidelines.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Our group entered with minimal medical background but a shared ambition to tackle a common issue faced by young adults in today’s COVID affected world. With that goal in mind, we were able to build a functional prototype within a weekend!

What I learned

We were able to implement the app development process for a common problem due to the difficulties posed by lengthy stay-at-home orders and the fear of going outdoors.

What's next for The Gratitude Book

We envision a continuation of the design process where we would implement additional features such as location “bookmarking” and a cloud-based viewing of community submissions within a local radius.