Made by StarsStep
Motivate, Reward, Repeat
At StarStep, we’re a small team of developers, who wanted to make routines fun and rewarding for kids. Tired of paper charts and constant reminders, we built an app that turns daily tasks into playful challenges with real rewards. Kids get their own dashboard to check off tasks, earn stars, and unlock custom rewards set by parents. The interface is bright, simple, and made just for little hands. Parents stay in control with easy tools to manage tasks and track progress — no nagging required. StarStep helps kids build responsibility, independence, and confidence — one small win at a time.
The Team
Zainab
In my gap year, I started learning JavaScript through Code…
First Girls, which sparked my interest in tech. Wanting to deepen my knowledge, I joined this bootcamp to explore software development more and gain hands-on experience.
Hanna Zhamoida
I’ve always loved creative problem-solving, and that’s…
what led me to Northcoders. I’m a fast learner, detail-focused, and excited to keep growing and working with others in tech.
Eddie Hoogewerf
Mathematics graduate turned aspiring software developer…
based in Essex.
Younes Abderrahmane
London-based Account Manager transitioning into Software…
Development.
Simon Mercer
Cambridge-based Software Developer, formerly a real-time…
and VFX artist.
Elliot Prior
Software Developer.
Tech Stack
We used JavaScript, TypeScript, React Native, Expo, Express, MongoDB, Netlify, and Auth0. As a small team, our goal was to build something fun, functional, and accessible across platforms. We used React Native with Expo to streamline development for both iOS and web. TypeScript gave us more structure and safety as the app grew. On the backend, we chose Express and MongoDB for a lightweight, flexible setup that could handle tasks, user data, and rewards with ease. For authentication, we integrated Auth0 to manage secure logins and simplify user management — especially useful as we plan to support both parents and kids. We used Netlify to deploy the web version quickly, letting us focus more on features and user experience rather than infrastructure. Together, this stack gave us everything we needed to move fast, stay secure, and build a product we’re proud of.
Challenges Faced
One of the main challenges we faced during this project was working with unfamiliar technologies like MongoDB, React Native, TypeScript, and Auth0. We overcame this by thoroughly exploring the documentation, doing technical spikes, and actively supporting each other as a team.