Project Briefing
Satchel was a sophisticated and user-friendly native application, available on both iOS and Android platforms, that was specifically designed to streamline communication within organizations such as schools, parishes, and other small communities. This versatile app expertly facilitated the distribution of various types of content, including notifications, engaging newsletters, news articles, essential web links, and vital contact details, directly to its users, thereby enhancing the overall information-sharing experience.
One of the unique features of Satchel was its deep integration capabilities. It allowed for seamless synchronization with users’ devices, enriching the user experience. For instance, events from Satchel could be directly added to a user’s phone calendar, and important contacts could be integrated into the device’s address book with user permission, fostering a more connected and organized lifestyle. Satchel’s intuitive design ensured that receiving and interacting with school updates, community news, and other critical information was both efficient and effortless. By allowing diverse content types like notifications, newsletters, and important school or community contacts to be easily accessible, Satchel stood out as a comprehensive solution for modern, effective communication in various organizational settings.
Technical Details
- Both iOS and Android applications are native, written in Swift 3 and Java respectively.
- The server side application (CMS and API) is written in Laravel 4.
- All the content provided by the organisations is provided via the CMS I created, which is then fed to the applications via a REST API, using the JSON format to transmit the data.
- The infrastructure leverages AWS Elastic Beanstalk, using S3, RDS, and EC2 instances to host the server application. A load balancer instance is used with an AutoScaling group to ensure that the infrastructure is scalable and propagates or terminates EC2 instances depending on the incoming traffic.
Screenshots
Notes
Satchel was my first foray into the world of business & marketing. I created the application and its underlying technology & infrastructure and marketed it to local schools & churches.
While Satchel was successful for what I was aiming for, I was priced out of the market by the likes of Compass and as such had to close shop.