The Human Principle
According to a recent study by Hubspot, an approximate $1.8 billion is lost each year in the US alone due to productivity costs. On average, turnover costs for a business is usually at least 3 full time yearly salaries. A solution to this problem could be to make a productivity app that streamlines peoples’ workflows and makes it easier for them to be productive. While this is a great idea, most employees who are not “productive” have the tools to improve their professional output, but not the support. We spend a lot of time, money, and attention on this problem, but in finding solutions, we usually don’t approach it from a more human perspective.
I created an app called Human Principle that does just that. This idea came to me because of the increase in teams working from home. Although that was the initial target audience, it can be used in any setting. It can be used by teams and supervisors as a way to track how individuals and teams are doing mentally, physically, and emotionally over periods of time. My goal in creating this app was to help people in communicating how they feel through technology. With Human Principle you can take surveys on how you feel and set goals for yourself. Each person can see their own goals and track their own progress about how they have felt over the lifetime of them using the app. Supervisors will have access to all of the responses and goals set by the team as a whole. After being able to see the anonymous responses by team members, supervisors will be able to help them, and better understand what they need specifically as human beings, not just as employees.
When I created this there were a few goals I had in mind. My main focus was on the user and their experience. When I started, the things I wanted included:
- CRUD functionality for users in the form of goal setting
- Multiple questionnaires with data that goes to a chart
- Two levels of permission so an admin user can see what was posted by their teams
- Warm colors, with a unique color scheme and a clean user interface
- DRY, efficient code
- The use new technologies to try to challenge myself
All of that was easier said than done. Although I accomplished my goals, I did not initially think of all of the different features it would take to make it happen. Just in my initial goals, I had to create multiple forms, set up user authentication with a token system, have a fully functioning backend with multiple models and levels of permission that will store that information, a simple way for users to analyze the data that was given to them, and more.
All of that was easier said than done. Although I accomplished my goals, I did not initially think of all of the different features it would take to make it happen. Just in my initial goals, I had to create multiple forms, set up user authentication with a token system, have a fully functioning backend with multiple models and levels of permission that will store that information, a simple way for users to analyze the data that was given to them, and more.
The most difficult part of the project for me was utilizing Djoser and Django Rest Framework for the first time. Before, when I have used Mongoose and Node.js I was able to craft the server side code exactly how I wanted it from scratch. It was a learning curve for me in implementing the new technology, because I had to get used to Django doing things under the hood. After much learning I was able to do what I wanted to, and produce what I had set out to make. I am proud of all of my code, and how I was able to really put together something powerful in a short amount of time. I am also proud of the amount of technologies that I used for the first time in production including using an established data structure, styled components, Python, Django, and PostgreSQL.
There are many features I look forward to adding in the future. I know that there are other things that can be implemented to improve the user experience and fully flesh out the idea of helping others with the Human Principle data that can be collected. While I am satisfied with what I have now, there is always more. Helping people is what I enjoy doing, and hopefully one day this can be used for that.