Media & Entertainment · Senior-care advisory
An Online Community for Senior-Care Reviews and Advice
A senior-living referral provider brought community information, customer reviews and location-based search together to help families explore care options.
- Client
- Senior-living referral provider
- MVP delivery
- 6 months
- Support team
- 5 developers and testers
- Scope
- Web, mobile and infrastructure
Client & project background
Helping families navigate senior-care choices
The client was already established as a senior-living referral service. It wanted an online advisory platform that complemented its existing services and helped families find information about senior communities, assisted living, home care and related services in one place.
Users needed to submit and browse reviews, photographs, ratings and facility introductions. The purpose was to make the available care options easier to explore, using both service information and actual customer experiences.
Discovery & delivery
From business analysis to a six-month MVP
Shinetech began by analysing the client's business model and participating in requirements discussions. Based on that analysis, the team recommended Ruby on Rails as the development framework.
The MVP launched with its core features in six months. The team then expanded the application, delivering custom front-end and back-end development alongside web and user-experience design.
Agile development, regular reporting and prompt communication supported changing requirements. The team discussed product options with the client throughout development, testing and maintenance.
Platform engineering
Search, location services and mobile access
The platform used Ruby on Rails, Java, Docker, AWS and a cloud-based service architecture to support scalability. Shinetech implemented real-time search and location services. Mobile versions used Apache Cordova, formerly PhoneGap, for cross-platform compatibility.
The platform also used Apache, AngularJS, Elasticsearch and CouchDB.
Results & ongoing support
A launched platform and a long-term maintenance relationship
Following testing and beta trial operation, the platform formally launched and ran steadily. Positive client feedback led to a long-term maintenance contract; the original case recorded six years of cooperation at the time it was written.
Users could search for local senior-living communities, follow links to providers matching their criteria, customise their accounts and track favourite communities, updates and available tours.
A team of five developers and testers handled maintenance and support, helped maintain the infrastructure and supported other client projects.