Due to the NDA with the client, the case study explains the problems solved by DevriX and our process breaking the business requirements into technical components and software architecture without sharing brand names and URLs.
We were hired to build a social media for the fashion industry. Our client was the owner of a modeling agency who wanted to build a social network with dozens of different customizable profiles and a premium gateway.
Our Process
We had several meetings with our client in order to specify several different components:
- user roles and permissions
- custom profiles
- customizable engine for building custom profiles
- enhanced profile view including gallery, video player, professional details and various custom fields
- messages
- search engine and filters
- payment integration and recurring payments
User Management
We built a custom platform with heavily granular user roles and permissions. There were several different roles in our project:
- Main administrator
- Staff (limited administrative role)
- Employer
- Agency owner
- Profile owner
- Simple registered user
- Guest
Our guests were provided with a limited access to several pages and a small number of freely available profiles without contact information.
Simple registered users had access to more content, but couldn’t navigate freely and use the enhanced search filters.
Profile owners were able to fill in their profiles and add the relevant information. Since we had configurable profiles, models attached their portfolio and videos from different events, although we had photographers, event organizers and other relevant profile views with different look and feel based on the profession.
Agency owners had access to their employees – a filtered view for listing profiles and accessing their details and messages
Employers were profile owners who had an additional permission for searching the site and contacting models or photographers for their events.
Staff had limited administrative privileges – deactivating profiles, editing their information as needed, and canceling payments
Custom Profiles
Our team designed several different views for different profiles.
Models had a portfolio as a header resembling a book, for elegant view and navigation of the main portfolio folder. Event organizers and other roles had different single view layouts that outlined their top work in a way that reflects their specific profession.
Custom Profile Engine
Since profiles had different fields available and different templates, we designed a custom administrative interface for creating custom profiles.
The engine listed the default profiles for models and photographers, and the site owner was able to create more profile types and arrange the fields accordingly, selecting the suitable template for each of the roles. Some fields were available only for specific types of profiles.
Our templating engine was flexible enough to add other specialized custom views without spending too much time rebuilding the core platform.
Messages
We built a messaging system that allowed employers to interact with other profiles. Certain limitations were added – capability control for roles that have specific access to those messages (like agency owners).
Search engine and Filters
Employers and agency owners had access to the full search engine and various filters for different search combinations.
The platform included role control and several fields specific for each role. This enhanced search experience allowed for registering thousands of profiles and easily filter by role, country, experience and other criteria.
Payment Integration
Our platform was integrated with PayPal and a 3rd party payment gateway. The core platform received notifications for payments and triggered noticed in case of failed or interrupted payments. Profiles had an activation period and expired (turning inactive and invisible) if a payment was not processed on time.
The system sent regular notices for coming payments that remind the profile owners that a payment is due.