Minixmal

Less clutter, more life. Minimalize me. Minixmal.me

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Inspiration

For years, I've felt that my life was complicated by an excess of items, leading to boredom and wasted time. I wanted to simplify and embrace minimalism, but I struggled to start. The hackathon organized by Bolt became the perfect opportunity to tackle this personal problem by building a solution. My vision was clear: a website about minimalism that was, itself, minimalist. I've always been a fan of the clean, organized look of Bento grid layouts, and I knew that was the right design choice for this project.

What it does

Minixmal.me is a platform designed to help users on their journey to a simpler, more minimalist lifestyle. It's not just a blog, but an interactive and gamified experience. The key features include:

  • Articles to provide guidance and inspiration on minimalism.
  • Gamified tasks that make the process of decluttering and simplifying fun and engaging.
  • An AI designer to help visualize minimalist spaces or concepts.
  • An integrated Elevenlabs AI agent to provide voice-based interaction and support.
  • A score system to track progress and maintain motivation.

How we built it

The process began with design. I used a mobile AI application and Flux to create the initial visual concepts. Since the AI-generated visuals were low-resolution, I used ChatGPT to enhance their quality. After creating several design mockups using different Bolt accounts, I chose my favorite one.

I transferred this final design to my main Bolt account and began development. I used Bolt's platform to build the entire site, integrating the features I had planned, including the articles, gamification logic, and the APIs for the AI designer and the Elevenlabs agent.

Challenges we ran into

At first, the development process was smooth and motivating. Bolt was performing flawlessly, and the site was coming together beautifully. However, towards the end of the competition, I ran into major technical roadblocks. Bolt would fail to apply even the simplest changes, make random, unwanted alterations to the design, and frequently produced errors. This was incredibly frustrating and almost drove me crazy, especially with the deadline approaching.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite the significant challenges, I'm proud of several things. Firstly, I was thrilled to secure the perfect domain name, Minixmal.me, which perfectly aligns with the project's theme.

More importantly, I am proud that I persevered. Even when the tools were failing and the project wasn't turning out to be perfect, I made the decision to see it through to the end. I successfully finished the project and published it, turning a long-held personal idea into a tangible, live website.

What we learned

This hackathon was a huge learning experience. I learned that development tools, even powerful ones like Bolt, can have limitations and become unstable, especially under the pressure of a competition. The most important lesson was the power of perseverance. Pushing through the frustration and finishing the project, even if it wasn't exactly as I had envisioned, was a valuable experience in itself.

What's next for Minixmal

The journey for Minixmal has just begun. The next steps will focus on refining the user experience and expanding the features. I plan to:

  • Improve the stability and functionality of features that were difficult to implement during the hackathon.
  • Expand the library of articles and gamified tasks.
  • Build a community and collect user feedback to add features that users really want.
  • Further develop AI capabilities to provide more personalized minimalist coaching.
  • Add a payment method for the paid subscription system.

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