All case studies

Principal Software Engineer

Lagooona

An iOS and Android social app with a feed, photos, videos and stories.

Under NDA — happy to walk through the architecture and the code in a call.

Lagooona

Screens from the Lagooona app.

2022 · lead developer

My role

After the contractors left, I owned architecture and the team: designed the mobile app and backend, recruited developers, reviewed code and established releases to three app stores.

Restart
Rewriting the client and backend, building the team
Social features
Posts, stories, comments and search
App release
Publishing to the App Store, Google Play and AppGallery

The business problem

After the spring 2022 announcement, the first version failed to reach a stable launch: deadlines slipped and builds did not work. The application needed a rewrite and release while interest in new photo and video platforms remained.

Restart

From a broken prototype to a new application

The mobile app was rewritten in React Native and the backend in NestJS. I recruited developers and organised code reviews.

One codebase for iOS and Android

The React Native app builds for iOS and Android from a single codebase.

Architecture, team and releases

I designed the app and backend, recruited the team and organised releases. We built the social features as a team.

Social features

Feed, discussions and discovery

Users could post photos, videos and stories, follow creators, like posts and leave comments.

Feed: stories from followed accounts at the top, photo and video posts below. Videos play inline, sound turns on with a tap.
Feed: stories from followed accounts at the top, photo and video posts below. Videos play inline, sound turns on with a tap.
A creator profile with the average score under the avatar. Ratings are one to five stars. After voting the app shows the current score.
A creator profile with the average score under the avatar. Ratings are one to five stars. After voting the app shows the current score.

Creator ratings

Users rate a creator from one to five stars. The average score appears below the creator’s avatar.

Comments and hashtag search

Comments support replies and likes. Hashtag search gathers posts about a topic into a mosaic grid.

More screens (2)
Post comments: each comment has its own likes and replies, so a discussion doesn't collapse into a flat wall of messages.
Post comments: each comment has its own likes and replies, so a discussion doesn't collapse into a flat wall of messages.
Hashtag search: posts on a topic are gathered into a mosaic grid — this is how people find others with shared interests on Lagooona.
Hashtag search: posts on a topic are gathered into a mosaic grid — this is how people find others with shared interests on Lagooona.

App release

Releasing for iOS and Android

We released the iOS version on the App Store and the Android version on Google Play and Huawei AppGallery. The team continued shipping updates after launch.

Outcome

The rewritten app reached three stores

I designed the app and backend, recruited developers and organised releases. In three months, the team rewrote the app and released it on the App Store, Google Play and Huawei AppGallery.

3
app stores: App Store, Google Play and AppGallery
3
months from the contractors' broken prototype to a rewritten app

Stack

  • React Native
  • TypeScript
  • NestJS
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Huawei AppGallery