Journey is a mental health and wellness web application built with React, Express.js, and Firebase, utilizing the Google Natural Language API. Designed and developed by Truman Be, Isabella Enriquez, Jessica Li, and Marc Kevin Quijalvo at Queen's Women in Computing's 24hr hackathon, hackHer. Awarded "Most Innovative Project" for being the "best project that demonstrates uniqueness, a creative use of technologies, and creates an innovative solution towards the case statement."
Journey, at its core, is a web journal. It was designed with the vision of combating rising mental health concerns in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a survey done by the Angus Reid Institute in April 2020, approximately 50% of Canadians reported a worsening of their mental health, with about 10% saying it has worsened ‘a lot.' With the increased fear of unemployment and/or illness, uncertainty, and social isolation brought by the pandemic, it is no wonder that these statistics are so high.
At hackHer, a hackathon hosted by Queen's Women in Computing, our team set out to develop a tool to help people with their mental health, an issue too often overlooked. We found that journaling is a common and healthy way of expressing one's emotions, and is a great tool for managing one's mental health. Our team wanted to improve this experience.
So we created Journey. With Journey, users can write daily journal entries, writing about their day, how they are feeling, and any other thoughts. After saving an entry, users receive breathing and/or visualization exercises we researched to be useful when people are overwhelmed, anxious, or in crisis. They are also redirected to our tips and resources section, with the former changing for each save, and the latter being a list of mental health resources (such as access to online counsellors, 24/7 hotlines, etc.) which are tailored according to the user's most recent entry. Once the user has completed their exercise, they can see that their entry has been successfully saved, and are able to view the entry's (and any past entries') content and mood evaluation.
Mood evaluation occurs once an entry is saved, using natural language analysis to assess the overall sentiment of the entry, giving it a score from -9 (for most negative) to 9 (for most positive). Entries are coloured accordingly, and each mood assessment is placed on a chart (showing the mood assessments for the month), allowing the users to visualize their moods over periods of time.
Journey was not designed to be an alternative to seeking real, professional help, but rather to help users more easily identify trends in their emotions. Users may not take what they're feeling as seriously as they should, but we believe that the perspective provided by Journey can help users see any red flags in their behaviour, and push them towards making a decision about their well-being.
- React
- Express.js
- Firebase
- Google Natural Language API