MOOZ

Video demo link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R66J0LTOHUnAf3sK-SRqd-xJQhXVBctU/view

1) Describe the problem your solution addresses? (150 word limit)
With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic, students have faced a variety of challenges: on top of grappling with social isolation, many students have had to return to a mentally taxing home life and stress about the quality of their education. Furthermore, students crave connection with their friends and peers. Therefore, our team aimed to create a solution that targets college students and helps them navigate mental health issues — in particular, those exacerbated by the pandemic. During our research phase, we noticed that existing apps offered either one-on-one professional support or allowed users to find and support peers; however, we did not find applications that combined both of these elements. Thus, MOOZ primarily focuses on providing students with accessible professional counseling as well as offering options for peer-on-peer support. In addition, our app heavily features communities for students who have been personally affected by COVID-19. By prioritizing these communities, our team aims to create a safe space and educational platform where students have the opportunity to share their personal stories and connect with others who have faced similar challenges or experiences. Connecting with peers virtually and attending classes online can pose a number of significant challenges — it can feel stress-inducing, inefficient, and exhausting. However, amongst this uncertainty, MOOZ strives to provide a breath of fresh air.

2) Why did you pick this solution and how does it address the problem? (150 word limit) With MOOZ, students will have the opportunity to stay connected with their friends and peers through a series of communities tailored towards their shared interests and identities. We aim to build and expand upon existing solutions to create an all-in-one application that students can utilize as a resource to stay connected and informed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through tools such as virtual counseling and therapy sessions, online chat rooms and video calls led by psychology specialists, MOOZ mitigates challenges associated with connecting in a virtual setting. Through video conferencing tools, MOOZ offers professional counseling from specialists trained in approaching mental health issues that may have arisen from the start of the pandemic, such as financial worries, academic uncertainty, family tensions, anxiety regarding personal health and more. Furthermore, MOOZ is a safe space where students can interact with peers and access professional counseling while keeping their identity secure. Our team utilized the Miro collaborative platform to sketch the user flow of our application and we created MOOZ using the Figma graphics editor and prototyping tool. A primary challenge we faced lay in narrowing our target audience, as we understand that all students have faced social and academic challenges in transitioning to a virtual environment. However, we ultimately decided to narrow our focus to college students because, being college students ourselves, we were able to personally identify with many of the issues addressed by the application.

Built With

• figma