Meet the Team and the Project

Introduction

This week marked a big milestone in our Capstone journey — our pitches wrapped up, and teams were officially formed. I am excited to share that I am part of a four-person team working on Life Leveling, a mobile application designed to help users stay on top of self-care tasks and build healthy habits through reminders, progress tracking, and positive reinforcementSoftware-Design-doc.

Our team members are:

• Cassandra Reider – UX/UI design and accessibility focus

• Stephen Connolly – UX/UI design and interaction flow

• Velma Smith – Backend development and database management

• Felipe de Souza (me) – Backend development and database management

Together, we’re combining our strengths to tackle both the technical and user experience challenges of building an accessible, habit-forming application.

The Project: Life Leveling

Life Leveling is built around the idea that small daily actions, reinforced over time, can help create lasting habits. The app will allow users to:

• Set fully customizable reminders

• Track progress toward daily and long-term self-care goals

• Receive encouragement through positive affirmations and gamification, such as streaks and leveling systems

The UX design emphasizes accessibility and inclusivity. Our style tile highlights calming, dyslexia-friendly typography (Lexend Deca) and a color palette tested for neurodiverse and visually diverse users. This focus ensures the app remains simple, friendly, and supportive rather than overwhelming.

My Role This Week

Velma and I are primarily focused on the backend and database structure. While on vacation this week, my direct coding contributions were limited, but I made sure to stay engaged by:

• Proposing ERD improvements: I helped refine our initial data model by suggesting:

  • Use of structured recurrence instead of free-form strings

  • Adding timestamps (created_at, updated_at, deleted_at)

  • Enabling soft deletes with cascading behavior

  • Applying uniqueness constraints to prevent duplicate reminders

  • Using enums/bitmasks to simplify features like weekly scheduling

• Participating in decision-making: Even with limited computer access, I joined voice calls, voted on key design choices, and supported discussions on both backend architecture and UX flow.

My focus was on long-term maintainability — building a schema that won’t cause headaches later when we expand features like streak tracking or gamification.

Looking Ahead

Next week, I’ll be back at full speed, contributing more actively to database setup and backend implementation. My goal is to continue supporting the team with technical problem-solving while making sure our data layer is optimized for growth.

I’m excited to see Cassandra and Stephen bring the UI/UX vision to life, while Velma and I ensure that the backend is stable and scalable. Together, we’re laying the foundation for an app that not only works but feels approachable, accessible, and motivating for our users.

Closing Thoughts

Forming the team was an important step, and I feel fortunate to be working alongside such talented peers. Even though this week was lighter for me in terms of technical output, I believe my contributions to communication, design validation, and backend planning added value.

I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead as we shift from planning to building — and to sharing more of our journey here on the blog.

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