Inspiration
We drew inspiration for this project from our daily life in college and struggles to focus and being distracted constantly while trying to study or even trying to decide what to make for our project. We thought it would be extremely beneficial to have a website or app that was fun promoted focus on completing daily tasks.
What it does
The Study Snail is a website that allows users to create an interactive to-do list and promotes focusing on these tasks for extended periods of time. Jeff the snail is trying to work his way across the screen while the user should be focusing on their task. If the user fails to focus on their chosen task, then they might accidentally kill Jeff the snail. Currently, the website is reliant on the honesty of the user to notify if they are unfocused, but if they fail to admit this, then they are only truly cheating themselves.
How we built it
First, we started with building a website prototype in Figma. We furthermore designed and animated the necessary images to be included in the site. This gave us a basic layout and plan to follow as we began developing the website. We used the Emacs environment to make HTML, CSS, and Javascript-based files. Then, using the public_html folder that had been provided by the University of Georgia for our homework, we published a basic format of the website.
Challenges we ran into
We are both inexperienced when it comes to web design so the whole project turned out to be rather challenging. Neither of us had ever touched the HTML, CSS, or Javascript languages and it proved to be a very difficult challenge. Also at 2 AM on Sunday morning, all of the HTML source files were deleted when we attempted to create a git repository. This meant that the website is a little cruder than it originally was and we got a lot less sleep than we wanted.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud that we were able to create a working website from scratch although it still has its kinks. After all, we hadn't ever done any web development before. We were very proud that we could learn more about those languages and create a website that we could be proud of. Furthermore, we learned how to use new websites and tools such as Figma that could prove to be very useful in the future.
What we learned
We learned how to use and implement a variety of different websites and tools to help us discover and create our site. For one, we are now adept at using Figma to set up a prototype website or application. Furthermore, we learned how to use the Emacs system better, a definite benefit for a CS1302 student. And as mentioned above, we were able to learn about web development, and maybe become a little more prepared for future classes, projects, and hackathons!
What's next for The Study Snail
The website for The Study Snail is not yet completed and has many missing features that will allow users to get the most out of the site. The next task that we would like to accomplish would be to successfully create and implement a working login system that allows different users to store data and have saved lists of tasks that they can return to after logging out. Furthermore, we would add different and various features as well to give the website a better overall look and usability
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