Workflow

Focusing on productivity and protecting mental health, Workflow is a scheduling app that tracks work and break intervals and gives you the option to connect with others that are also on break.

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Inspiration

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an abrupt change to a virtual mode of working and socialization. Transitioning to a virtual work-from-home environment has blurred the boundaries of work and home life. Without a clear work-life balance, students are being burnt out and mental health issues due to isolation are rapidly increasing. According to Mental Health America, over 47 million Americans are experiencing mental health issues such as stress and anxiety.

What it does

Our Workflow app enables users to set a schedule for working intervals and break intervals. When time for your break, Workflow reminds you with short tips and tricks to relax and take a break from the computer. Also, in the traditional office setting, running into coworkers during your break is a regular occurence, but that is completely taken out because of the virtual work-from-home environment. With Workflow, you can connect and relax with coworkers on break via video chat. If, after your break, you notice you are still feeling drained or burnt out, you can use Workflow to inform your supervisor or mental health counselor. Otherwise, you can simply use the app to be redirected to trusted mental health resources.

How we built it

Using Figma, we created a prototype of the various screens the user sees while using Workflow. With Flask, we were able to use Python to create a web framework based on our created prototype.

Challenges we ran into

We were initially overwhelmed by the idea of building a full coding project from scratch, since it was our first hackathon experience. Setting practical goals with our project became our first priority.

With only limited knowledge of Python, we did not have experience with web and app development. By learning how to use Flask for the first time, we were able to learn more about building web applications using Python. We explored the process of app development - from prototyping in Figma to building the actual web app using Flask. The guidance of our mentors helped us understand the tools we can easily harness to push ourselves, without having in-depth coding backgrounds.

With one teammate having a 2 hour time zone difference, maintaining clear communication and flexibility was key to ensure our project was successful.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  1. Working together as a team and recognizing the strength of one another
  2. Creating innovative prototyping ideas from scratch
  3. Brainstorming and understanding the needs of our app users
  4. Stepping outside our comfort zone as a team to learn using Flask
  5. Teaching one another how to use GitHub, Atom.io, HTML, CSS and other platforms
  6. Maintaining communication on Discord to ensure everyone is on track
  7. Keeping one another motivated

What we learned

With no prior knowledge and this being our first hackathon, we learned a lot! By creating our prototype, we learned how to create an elegant user interface for our application and gained insight on both front-end and back-end development. Also, we gained experience on using Flask for building our web application using Python. Maintaining contact with our mentors helped us understand the complete app development process and shape the direction of our project based on our coding backgrounds.

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