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Overview

A cross-platform mobile fitness app with a good-will mission and a sophisticated reward system, the Vizer team came to us to level up their product.
Samantha Pantazopoulos

Co-Founder & CEO, Vizer Inc.

Dylan Barbour

Co-Founder, Vizer Inc.

George Wheeler

CTO, Vizer Inc.

Vizer is a San Diego-based startup and mobile app with a mission to “make hunger sweat” by arranging sponsored donations to food banks as a reward when users reach daily fitness goals. SoftServ delivered many complex features that were key to their business model including geolocation and location-based “check-in” utilizing bluetooth iBeacons. We worked in agile fashion, responding to the ever-shifting priorities of a startup in the funding stages.

Tags

MobileMonitoring & MaintenanceDevelopment Support

Requirements

Our Solution

Vizer was ready to level up from proof-of-concept to functional app, which required rethinking the initial CakePHP codebase.

Building the foundation for a strong, multi-platform app required a refactor of a code base that had been functional but created under limited resources. SoftServ recommended bringing into Ruby On Rails and rebuilding the app with a scalable, sustainable code base. This included the implementation of a test suite to optimize development and minimize bugs.

The app required granular location-based access to facilitate their plan of targeted, incremental geographic roll-out.

The ability to lock out user registration from outside the limited areas was important to Vizer, whose expansion model required the curation of local business partnerships prior to opening user adoption. SoftServ created data-tables that allowed user geolocation by points more granular than zip code, and built this model scalably so that the app would be functional in any location as soon as administrators made those areas live.

A major growth benchmark, Vizer was ready to make the app available not only to iOS users, but to Android.

Selecting React Native, which allows maximum duplication of code across mobile platforms, for the app front-end library was key to the success in bringing Vizer to Android. SoftServ was able to respond to the shifting demands and timelines of a startup and introduce Vizer to the Google Play store on tight timelines, with duplicate functionality.

Results

Softserv helped Vizer to level up their product by developing the following features.

Integration with iBeacons was a key feature to recognize fitness goals based on duration of proximity to beacons located in partner gyms. In addition to code implementation, this hardware integration required rigorous testing.

Vizer began as a functional iOS app in CakePHP, built by an individual developer. One of SoftServ’s first goals was to rebuild the app in Ruby on Rails, with an eye towards sustainability and the scalability that was key to Vizer’s growth plan.

SoftServ built a location-based wall to lockout users outside the initial market area, including messaging to those who attempt registration outside the zone. Geolocation was developed to be scalable, allowing Vizer to easily add new locations based on market growth.

SoftServ created an Android version of the Vizer app and deployed to the Google Play store, while continuing to manage both Google and Apple accounts. Choosing React Native as the initial app framework was key making the move to Android a success.
Bluetooth Integration
Platform Migration
Location Services
Android Capability
Testimonials

Here's what people had to say about us.

Melissa Campbell
Melissa Campbell
Engaged Learning Tools Specialist, UC San Diego
SoftServ helped us navigate a big update to our student research opportunity portal, building in new features centered on student user experience. They took on the challenge and found solutions for all of our needs to support our diverse campus stakeholders.
Erik Johnson
Erik Johnson
CEO, CablingPlus
They have the knowledge, experience, and professionalism to ensure 100% success. They built us an enterprise level custom e-commerce website/platform that has been nothing but rock solid.
Andreas Kostopoulos
Andreas Kostopoulos
Archives Manager, American Research Center in Egypt
Thank you for all the great work you are doing at SoftServ! So pleased and proud to have worked with your team on developing our digital archives.
Rachel Howard
Rachel Howard
Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Louisville Libraries
We appreciate the time SoftServ took with us, as well as their team’s expertise, guidance, and persistence. They made it possible for us to include multi-page documents, provide friendly URLs for items and collections, and limit the size of allowable downloads in our Hyku application.
Jill Morris & Kirsten Leonard
Jill Morris & Kirsten Leonard
Executive Directors, PALNI / PALCI
SoftServ has been key in helping us accomplish the ambitious goals of our grant-funded efforts to build a cost-effective multi-tenant Hyku repository to suit the needs of many diverse institutions. Their expertise, commitment to education and open source values, and contributions to the greater Hyku and Samvera community has been highly valued by our team and is what sets SoftServ apart.
Melissa Campbell
Melissa Campbell
Engaged Learning Tools Specialist, UC San Diego
SoftServ helped us navigate a big update to our student research opportunity portal, building in new features centered on student user experience. They took on the challenge and found solutions for all of our needs to support our diverse campus stakeholders.
Erik Johnson
Erik Johnson
CEO, CablingPlus
They have the knowledge, experience, and professionalism to ensure 100% success. They built us an enterprise level custom e-commerce website/platform that has been nothing but rock solid.
Andreas Kostopoulos
Andreas Kostopoulos
Archives Manager, American Research Center in Egypt
Thank you for all the great work you are doing at SoftServ! So pleased and proud to have worked with your team on developing our digital archives.
Rachel Howard
Rachel Howard
Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Louisville Libraries
We appreciate the time SoftServ took with us, as well as their team’s expertise, guidance, and persistence. They made it possible for us to include multi-page documents, provide friendly URLs for items and collections, and limit the size of allowable downloads in our Hyku application.
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