hacc2016 / amazingfriends

HACC Repository for team "AMAZINGFRIENDS"

MANTLE - TEAM AMAZING FRIENDS

####TRY IT VIA DESKTOP APP!

OSX (Note: Unsigned. Right click and open or change app opening permissions.) | Win-32-x64

Inspiration

Created for the Age-Friendly challenge of HACC 2016. Trying to find a way we can find better ways to help out the elderly with web technologies.

The inspiration for our app came from the experience of our own family trying their best to support grandma after losing her mobility and independence. Grandma wanted to live in the home that provided her many comforts and fond family memories. Grandpa recently passed so grandma was very lonely and depressed. The family tried very hard to take care of grandma but it was stressful to coordinate care and family felt like some were investing more than others. Since group communication was done mainly through email and phone calls, it was difficult keeping the whole family on the same page. There were many arguments due to miscommunications. Everyone just wanted to care for grandma, but the stress and breakdown in family communication took away from the ability of the family to provide grandma the best support at times.

What it does

Mantle provides a simple place to organize information and coordinate family to provide the highest quality of life to a loved one. At its core it is a data repository for people and a tool to help caregivers with various resources. Eventually it can be developed as a service to better help with its management features.

###Features/Benefits:

Profile: A place for family to organize and quickly access actionable information on medications, doctors, errands, status updates, and more.

Create to-dos and assign them to family members: From shopping list items to appointments, create and assign tasks and reminders to keep the whole family organized and engaged.

Shared calendar and Scheduler Keep track of medical appointments, medication refills, and other important dates. Share access with others so they plan and coordinate.

Bulletin/Newsfeed: Document and share updates and announcements to make it easy for rest of the family to stay in the loop.

Notifications: Send helpful and timely notifications ensuring medication is taken on time and no important task or update falls through the cracks.

Resources: Helpful information and tips on health topics relevant to you and your family as well as nearby locations for assistance and activities. Serves as a repository for people to coordinate with others about a specific cared one. you can create To-Dos, set activities, and share information to coordinate with others.

How we built it

Using AirshipCMS as a backend service we incorporated web technologies such as HTML5, SCSS/CSS, and Javascript via NodeJS, and Electron.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was that the subject matter was really broad and there were so many ways to approach the issue. We initially explored many surface level issues and after many pivots, took a step back to explore whom our end user would ultimately be. We found that seniors were not comfortable using technology and family were their biggest source of joy. We realized to make a real impact we would need to build a solution that would support family in providing better care for their loved ones.

Another challenge was deciding what core technologies would be used to implement our app and managing the scope of the project. We initially over-engineered our original technology stack in relation to the scope of the project and needed to simplify the technology due to time constraints..

###Accomplishments that we're proud of Building something that will be useful and beneficial to elders and their families and not settling on an idea we felt wouldn’t provide value to its users.

What we learned

Less is more. Our original technology stack was over-engineered and more cumbersome than needed for the scope of the project. It was smarter for us to focus in on the main features and what technology would get us there most efficiently.

There are a lot of tools and services that already exist to help elderly, but some are complicated and need more exposure.

What's next for Mantle

Chat communications. Push notifications. Email notifications. // Currently not fully implemented

AIRSHIP AHOY! Amazing Friends