Inspiration
ThinkLove.tech was inspired by those who work too hard, those who don't leave any time for themselves, those that tip the balance of the scales too hard in the wrong direction. Everyone needs a bit more self-care in their lives and that's what we aimed to do. Earn merit points for every self-care activity you add to your to-care list. Share your achievements with the world and let everyone know that you don't just work hard, you care hard. Best of all, when you're feeling positive why not record some affirmations? Then, when you're feeling low just click the "Give Me a Call" button and get a call from the one that knows you best, YOU!
What it does
Browse through curated lists of merits, based on your work schedule, lifestyle, and other life factors. Are we not providing you with a list of self-care activities that you enjoy? Feel free to add your own. The system is set up to allow custom merits that other users might enjoy themselves. Recording affirmations for yourself can be done either directly on the website or with a quick call to you.
How we built it
A custom CMS was built with PHP to allow easier management of merit input as well as full control over the MySQL database allowing us to develop user metrics to suggest new or favorite merits. Connecting with Twilio allowed for a backend implementation of voice recording and serving alongside Google Cloud Storage, Computing, and Database technologies. Leveraging the power of Google Cloud also allows us access to Machine Learning with BigQuery to develop user merit models later on.
Challenges we ran into
Implementing all the systems of a custom CMS proved to be a bit more than the team as a whole could manage. Some implementations fell just short of final production but core backend systems were put into place to help out with some of the more menial tasks. Keeping scalability was an initial challenge that we had to take into account as well as working with a number of tools new to our team's skillset.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are really proud of our Twilio implementation and what it means for what we can offer as we polish and move the site forward. Not only does it provide a unique way of self-encouragement, but it also provides endless possibilities for ideas that we didn't even know we had at the start of this project. Whether the site is used by many, or just us, we feel proud of the self-care idea that we brought to fruition in such a short time with such fresh programmers.
What we learned
Proper implementation of composer packages helped us to set up a few issues that we weren't sure we could overcome. While most of our team was more familiar with AWS, utilizing Google Cloud for long-term analytics was a great decision for the site and, with our entire stack, allowed us to become very acquainted with the service.
What's next for ThinkLove.tech
We're going to keep using the site to help manage our own personal struggles as well as polish it up so that we can keep moving forward for friends, family, and anyone else looking to balance their hard work ethic. Quite a bit of the system is rough around the edges but the core availability is there. Look out for more of us in the future and always remember, Think, Love, Tech!
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.