DinoJourney

The guilt-free path to well-being on your phone.

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DinoJourney 🦕💙

Inspiration 🌟

The inspiration for DinoJourney stemmed from the mental health challenges many face while trying to balance productivity and personal well-being. Many health and productivity apps unintentionally induce guilt when users fail to meet their goals, leading to a cycle of negative emotions, stress, and even depression. According to the World Health Organization, depression affects over 280 million people worldwide¹. With DinoJourney, we aimed to create a guilt-free space where users can stay productive while caring for their mental health.

We also drew from research on the positive impact of pets on mental health. Studies show that companion animals can reduce stress, provide emotional support, and improve well-being². Our dinosaur companion serves as a non-judgmental friend, encouraging users to stay motivated without pressure.

What It Does 🎮💬

DinoJourney is a mental health companion app that helps users build healthy habits and stay productive without the pressure of perfection. Users are paired with a friendly, non-judgmental dinosaur that grows with them as they achieve daily goals. The app integrates:

  • Personalized habit tracking for mental health, productivity, and well-being.
  • A conversational agent that engages users in non-invasive conversations, asking about their day and gently encouraging reflection.
  • Gamification elements like XP leveling, pet upgrades, and missions to motivate consistent progress.
  • Private data storage to protect user information and ensure privacy.

Users grow alongside their dino companion, making small, guilt-free improvements every day.

How We Built It 🛠️🖥️

We built DinoJourney using React Native for seamless cross-platform functionality. The app stores data locally, ensuring user privacy, and the conversational agent is driven by lightweight NLP through Gemini to create supportive, organic interactions tailored to a specific user's background.

The gamification system draws from behavioral psychology research, such as James Clear’s Atomic Habits³, emphasizing small, consistent improvements. Users can level up their dino companion as they complete tasks, reinforcing the idea of incremental progress that translates to your well being in the real world.

Additionally, we placed a lot of emphasis on User Interface Design and Story Telling because of the importance these factors can play on one's experience with the tool. We used Artificial Intelligence to create logos, images, and even the music used in our application.

Challenges We Ran Into 🚧

One significant challenge was balancing motivation and guilt-free accountability. Many existing apps rely on reminders and pressure, which can lead to burnout⁴. Our goal was to develop a gentle system that promotes consistency without stress, which required a lot of user feedback to refine the tone of our conversational agent.

We also faced technical challenges integrating the gamification system with personalized habit tracking, ensuring the system felt rewarding without being too game-like.

Accomplishments We're Proud Of 🎉

We’re proud of how well the dino companion resonated with ShellHacks participants during preliminary testing. Feedback confirmed that a supportive dino friend helps users feel less pressured and more motivated than if it were to have less friendly features.

What We Learned 🧠📚

Through this process, we learned the value of positive reinforcement in habit formation⁶. Users are more likely to engage when their progress is celebrated rather than criticized. We also prioritized privacy, ensuring all data stays local to maintain user confidentiality.

We gained valuable insight into the delicate nature of motivational design, iterating multiple times to strike the perfect balance between support and productivity without inducing stress.

What's Next for DinoJourney 🚀

Looking ahead, we plan to enhance DinoJourney by:

  • Expanding companion options: Allowing users to choose from a variety of companions beyond the current dinosaur.
  • Community features: Creating a safe space for users to connect and share progress.
  • Advanced features: Implement Text-to-Speech capabilities
  • Augmented Reality: So you can see your dino companion in the real world!

Cited Research 📚

  1. World Health Organization. "Depression." WHO, 2023. Link.
  2. Brooks, H., Rushton, K., Lovell, K., et al. (2018). "The power of support from companion animals for people living with mental health problems: A systematic review." BMC Psychiatry. Link
  3. Clear, J. (2018). Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.Link
  4. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). "Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being." American Psychologist. Link
  5. Bakker, D., Kazantzis, N., Rickwood, D., & Rickard, N. (2016). "Mental Health Smartphone Apps: Review and Evidence-Based Recommendations for Future Developments." JMIR mHealth and uHealth. Link
  6. Johnson, D., Deterding, S., Kuhn, K. A., et al. (2016). "Gamification for health and wellbeing: A systematic review of the literature." ScienceDirect. Link

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