“Smile Help Anti-Bullying Support App”

👏 Executive Director, Experience Design at Verizon — Emoti-Con Judge

Some very strong and innovative ideas in here, and as a solo project, there is a lot of depth in the concept execution. Solid use cases identified to equip people to defend themselves against bullying, proactively build oneself up through affirmations, and best yet– build a community of advocates, turning bystanders into UPstanders! If you were to continue developing this idea, I'd recommend exploring ways to help someone reporting an incident receive a follow up, and what kind of companion interface may exist to provide visibility to the supporting adults in the IRL community of reported bullying events.

👏 Sr. Product Manager, Z-Team at Tinder — Emoti-Con Judge

In a world where bullying has become much more pervasive both in the natural world and the digital one, Katherry ’s idea to build community support to combat bullying definitely stands out. Kids have been bullied for ages, but in recent years, the discourse has become so divisive that it almost begs for an app to address the issue, so I commend Katherynn on recognizing that. You can tell that she put care into the thought process by the inclusion of the Alert feature, Noise feature, and the Emergency feature if things get out of hand. As someone who was bullied in middle school, I think this app could be incredibly useful not only for the bullied, but also an easy way for people too scared to speak up in the moment to be upstanders via the app.

I think that Katherry has included all of the necessary basic features to have will both the bullied and with onlookers. I think that if she’s building on the features she already has, you could potentially add some capabilities that would make bullies find justice. For example, when you click on Alert, perhaps there could be a camera icon that you could click on to take photos for the record. These photos could automatically be sent to whatever authorities are programmed into the app? You could also put in additional details about where it happened, what time, etc. This app is already great at focusing on the safety of the bullied, but features to help hold bullies accountable could also be in a future iteration of this app.

I’m very heartened by this idea since it aims to protect people who often go unprotected, suffering emotional scars because others never spoke up. And now they have a tool that could help to stop it in its tracks. Well done!

👏 Country Manager at InsideBoard — Emoti-Con Judge

This is a very good project. You have picked an issue that is a very important issue. Our schools should be safe and when they are not, since most students have a cell phone they could definitely intervene with the help of your app. So this is very smart thinking.

The design of the screens is extremely simple. I think this is a key requirement. In an emergency situation you don't have time to think, read text or discover features. Just like you decided to do it, in that case you need big buttons and hardly any text. So this is a very good design.

You have included most of the features for a first version of the app, so the scope of your project is well thought out.

Overall this is very good work. You have applied good design principles to a complex problem.

👏 Associate Professor, Art & Design at Kutztown University — Emoti-Con Judge

Katherry I commend you for tackling such a complex subject as a solo project. Your app has two primary functions the first being an alert system and the second as a support system which is very smart! It might be a helpful feature to add in a "find an upstander" map--that way if you are in danger you can reach out to someone close by for help. I hope you continue to develop this project it is certainly a worth while endeavor.