Problem
Students under academic pressure reach for music instinctively, but few know which listening patterns help focus or settle stress, and most mental-health tools are clinical, generic, or outside a student's daily routine. The Orchid Project started as research and awareness accounts on this; the software made it usable every day.
Method
A Flask web app with authentication and persistent storage. Three features: an eight-question form that recommends a curated playlist by mood, stress and study habits; a daily journal with a motivational prompt on submit, to make reflection a habit; and a non-diagnostic self check-in covering anxiety, burnout and related concerns, framed as awareness rather than assessment. Built with Python, Flask, SQL, HTML, CSS, Bootstrap and JavaScript.
Evaluation
Piloted with students at my school, who used the playlist finder and journal and came back with positive feedback, the first time something I'd built was in other people's hands. It stayed a pilot rather than a product, so there are no scale numbers; what it proved was that the idea landed with the people it was for.
The decision it drives
For a student: which playlist to put on and what to write down this morning. For me: the first time I designed the product, the ethics and the code together: no clinical claims, consent first, supportive not diagnostic.