Inspiration
After listening to the IWE presentation, we realized that many people are unable to accomplish their goals because they lack the system of motivation necessary to do so. We thought that an interesting problem to solve was how people find it very difficult to read as much as they would like to. Reading boosts a person’s overall well-being. A person who reads is 2.5 times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s Disease, and reading can reduce stress by up to 68%, according to http://www.realsimple.com/health/preventative-health/benefits-of-reading-real-books. In addition, reading can be easily quantified in terms of number of pages, making it the ideal target for a motivational tool.
What it does
Komodo is a tool for motivating you to read more. Komodo allows you to set reading goals for yourself and receive motivational SMS messages, powered by Twilio, whenever you make progress towards these goals. You can also interact with your friends, as Komodo sends an SMS message to a your friends when you complete a book. You can also see which books your friends are currently reading. Komodo provides a supportive network and a valuable tool for accomplishing your goal of reading more.
How we built it
We used Python for the backend and used Flask as the Python framework. We used the Twilio API to send the motivational reading text messages. The website was created in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Challenges we ran into
It was difficult to make the Twilio components work properly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We were able to create a functional website with all core features present at our first hackathon and were able to successfully overcome our difficulties and integrate Twilio with the website. We were able to create progress bars and achievements.
What we learned
We learned how to use Twilio. We learned about which characteristics are needed of a product in order to motivate people to change their ways for the better.
What's next for komodo
We would like to implement MMS messages. We would also like to display images of the covers of books on the website, as well as to create true user login accounts and further integrate the social component.
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