Fashion App Development for a Model Scouting Platform

As the platform had multiple problems in both the backend and frontend, we first audited it in order to evaluate the scope of rework. Then, we implemented a number of useful features, including those added via third-party integrations.

Audit

We audited the existing functionality and collected requirements for further fashion software development that would combine e-commerce and professional networking functions. 

In order to understand the solution’s quality in both technical and user-experience terms, Iflexion’s team performed the following:

1. We reviewed the existing codebase and database structure

2. We identified outstanding code quality issues

3. We initiated and completed all-round manual UI testing 

4. We corrected all identified bugs and critical issues

As a result, we found out that even the basic functionality was far from being ready, and many processes lacked business logic. Design-wise, we proposed a few updates, including a reworked look and structure for the model’s pages, as well as some visual effects such as mouseovers and micro-animations. 

We put all the planned technical and functional enhancements in the project backlog together with workload estimates for each item. 

MVP

The customer was looking to accelerate time-to-market and increase the overall cost-effectiveness of the solution. Together we decided against developing some features from scratch and used available third-party tools instead.

The MVP featured the following functionality enabled through the integrations:

• Registration of private and business accounts and their verification via Trulioo
• Digital signature of contracts through DocuSign
• Payment for promoted products and services via Stripe

Functional Upgrades

We defined the following user roles of the platform:

• Models who published their portfolios on the website and promoted sponsored products or services on their personal pages.
• Sponsors who offered their products or services to models for promotion, for example, fashion items or cosmetics.
• Donors who viewed the model’s profile and purchased the advertised products or services from the model’s page.

We added more features specifically for these user roles to enhance their experiences.

User experience and communication

• Recommendations for donors and sponsors based on the recently viewed models’ profiles
• View count for live streams, with the most viewed videos pushed to the homepage
• Chat history that accumulates during a video play
• A range of filters for advanced search
• Email personalization based on the model's geolocation

Security

We added 2-factor authentication as well as user ID verification. For payment processing, we implemented credit card and automated clearing house (ACH) payments using Stripe and Plaid integrations. 

Live video streaming

Our team came up with an idea of implementing the live stream functionality in place of the broadcasts in the platform’s earlier version, which required downloading and installing OBS Studio. That created a technical barrier to broadcasting from mobile phones and wasn’t a user-friendly option altogether. 

After researching, our specialists suggested direct integration with YouTube and Facebook. This would allow for an easy start and increased accessibility, as these digital services are highly popular with the platform’s demographic. We introduced live broadcasts and online chats through Facebook Live and YouTube Live integrations, enabling the following features:

• Responding to the audience during live streams
• Saving live streams directly on the platform
• Viewing all active live streams with current and overall view counts
• Viewing a model’s live stream, including their bio details and available promos
• Joining live streams and participating in their live chats

Admin panel

We enhanced the admin panel with the new features. Now the platform admins can:

• Organize payments, view donations, and approve models
• View stored DocuSign contracts in the dashboard
• View donations sent to a model’s account including their details, as well as receive notifications about new donations
• Assign and delete user types to models, donors, and additional admins
• Edit and remove services
• View the list of active live streams, archive and delete them
• Add and edit meta-tags, keywords, and descriptions on models’ pages for SEO purposes

We ran the project according to Agile practices and the Scrum methodology. The customer was continuously involved in the process, so we could quickly clarify project requirements and approve intermediate deliverables.

Iflexion introduced continuous code review practices to ensure ongoing code quality improvement. Our engineers used a stage/production environment for preliminary testing and coordination with the customer, as well as automated continuous deployment.