Mobile App, 2019

Project Description

First is a health app specifically designed for first responders like police officers, firefighters, medical professionals, EMS workers, search and rescue specialists, and military personnel. These individuals constantly put themselves in stressful situations to help and protect others, but often don't have the time, energy, or resources they need to take care of themselves. With thousands of emergency workers worldwide experiencing symptoms like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, it's time for a change in how we approach traumatic situations and self-care.

With First, first responders of all types can track missions or calls they've responded to, evaluate stress levels, and learn about how to protect themselves from stress injuries in the line of duty. With research-based self-assessment tools and injury prevention techniques, First can help you stay happier and healthier while you keep saving others. And if you do find yourself reacting to a traumatic event, First will make sure you take care of yourself so you can get back into the field again faster.

The Process

I started creating this mobile app as a school project while taking a Mobile App Development class at CU, but it has truly taken on a life of its own. As a volunteer search and rescue worker in my free time, I was inspired by the work of emergency medicine specialist Laura McGladrey, who delivered a presentation to my rescue team on the dangers of stress injuries and how people of all types can protect themselves in traumatic situations. I connected with her about potentially developing an app focused on stress injury prevention, with tracking functionality and educational resources, and she has been a huge source of support and guidance throughout the entire development process.

Throughout the rest of the semester, I focused on creating a minimum viable product version of my app and teaching myself Flutter, a mobile app framework backed by Google that facilitates cross-platform (iOS and Android) app development in the Android Studio IDE. As this was my first mobile app, there was a huge learning curve for everything from app architecture to data storage, but I gradually became more comfortable and efficient in the Flutter environment and Dart programming language. By the end of spring, I had successfully created a functional app for my class, but I knew I wanted to take the project further. During the idea validation and user testing phases, I witnessed excitement and support from the rescue community around my app as a tool for tracking missions and stress levels, so I decided to keep developing the project over the summer with the intention of releasing it on the App Store as soon as possible.

In June, I had the opportunity to fly to Mt. Hood, Oregon for a national mountain rescue conference, which provided a chance to pitch the app to members of different rescue teams all over the country and get critical feedback on the user experience of the app. I used everything I learned to continue redesigning and refining the app to make it usable for a wider variety of users, and eventually expanded the focus of the app from mountain rescuers to anyone who might regularly experience trauma, including firefighters, police officers, military personnel, and medical professionals. In late September of 2019, I launched the first release of First on the iOS app store, and the response has been incredible. In early March 2020, the iOS version received an update (UI refresh and some small bug fixes) and the Android version was rolled out for the first time. More improvements and expansions are planned for the future!