SlugHug

SlugHug is a way for anyone to anonymously send a fleeting thought out into the world and receive a memorable reply back, whether they want to vent about their day or just send good vibes.

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Inspiration

When we were drafting ideas for CH 2024, we wanted to create something that we would use ourselves. We went through a several ideas pertaining to our local communities, but the idea that stuck out the most to us: we called it SlugHug. It was inspired by the video game "Kind Words", and our distaste for modern-day doomscrolling. We saw the potential for that concept of fleeting, ephemeral messages to be more than just a game - we saw it as the potential to be an entire platform. Somewhere were people would not only using it to relax and for fun, but also the potential for ease of access to legitimate professional health, and potentially more.

What it does

Users can compose messages (slugs) and write whatever they want - troll messages will get flagged by a sentiment analysis AI and sent for review. This person's thoughts are distributed to other users, who will be able to read and respond once only (sending a hug), promoting meaningful, therapeutic writing and conversation, almost like a journal where you know that someone out there would understand you. Once you read a response to your slug, it is gone forever - only the memory of it remains.

How we built it

We began by using Axure RP 10 to prototype the website flow and design. It helped us iron out some kinks with the ideas we had, such as helping us reduce the amount of pages we had planned down to a one-page responsive design. We used the MERN tech stack to develop this.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into a few different problems. Learning an entirely new tech stack, in particular the middleware, was difficult. Balancing time, merge conflicts, documentation, tech stack compatibility, MacOS vs Windows compatibility and cross-platform development were all things we had to consider when building this.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The overall design and flow of the website. There are bubbly cute characters. The fact that several of us took the plunge and learned something completely new - Auth0, UI, Graphic Design, Databases, React...

What we learned

On top of learning the MERN tech stack, we learned the importance of documentation and making sure the things we developed were easily used by others around us.

What's next for SlugHug

In the middle of making our prototypes, we realized that the concept of SlugHug could easily be extended to more than just therapeutic purposes. The nature of our design means it doesn't have to be bound by any specific label. It can expand do other communities such as students and teachers, hobbyists, concert-goers, and more.

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