Inspiration
Guilty of mindless-scrolling, we knew there had to be a way to hold ourselves accountable for finishing up work and staying focused. Some methods we have used before included uninstalling apps, putting away phones and downloading screen time tracking apps. But these really limited usage of devices in general preventive productive use of our devices too. We found that keeping each other on track was something that really worked for us, with peer pressure being a great tool to ensure productivity.
What it does
We tap on peer to peer accountability to target key issues such as procrastination and low attention span. The motivation gain theory backs our idea by proving that individuals have a greater sense of motivation to complete a task when they are working in settings where they are not alone. The led to the development of a Google Chrome Extension- allowing peers to keep each other in check and receive notifications when the other visits blacklisted sites or distracted from the work at hand.
How we built it
Given the convenience and ease of access provided by Google Chrome extensions, we decided to explore building our own extension. Our product development started wth a rough Figma design and proper planning for use cases. Through multiple design iterations, the group agreed on essential features to implement and developed our minimum viable product (MVP).
Challenges we ran into
In the journey of developing our Chrome extension, one key challenge we encountered was creating a sustainable subscription model to facilitate seamless expansion as our user base grows. Drawing inspiration from our academic learnings, we strategically implemented a sophisticated 2-way socket design, incorporating elements akin to a polling feature. This innovative approach ensures that clients receive real-time updates directly from the server as soon as new data becomes available. By adopting this method, we've significantly minimised the necessity for clients to make multiple requests, thus optimising the efficiency of data retrieval and guaranteeing that information from the server remains consistently up-to-date.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
A fully working Google Chrome Extension, connecting our client and server together seamlessly with a functioning polling feature.
What's next for trackmepls.
- Summary reports at the end of each session
- Comments by users monitoring others to directly advice them to stay away from Blacklisted sites by sending them notifications.
- A reverse approach- building a whitelist where users can only visit sites present in this whitelist while all other sites are banned. This allows to even more productivity of users.
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