Accommodation Search for Expats Website MVP
Learn how Codica helped a client to quickly build an MVP of accommodation search website for expats.
Domain:Accommodation
Location:Australia
Timeline:Feb 2019 - May 2019
Services:UX/UI design services, Front-end and Back-end development, MVP development
Team:1 Project Manager, 1 UX/UI Designer, 2 React Developers, 1 QA Engineer
Core Technologies:React, Redux, ANTdesign / Semantic, CSS animations
Background
This project is a world-first service for finding long-term accommodation. The company helps people who move to Australia to take up employment find a residence quickly.
The goal of the project is to simplify the relocation process by assisting in accommodation search for expats.
Business challenges
- Build a minimum viable product of an accommodation-picking platform in a short time frame.
- Create a fast-loading house rent website for expats to find the most suitable accommodation that meets specific requirements.
- Find the most convenient way to collect search criteria from users to offer them suitable accommodation.
Value delivered
- Our team delivered a working minimum viable product that our client could present to early investors, without spending too much time and money on web development.
- The expat housing platform allows quickly finding the most relevant accommodation options with the help of the search wizard, and further downloading the results as a PDF file.
- To ensure high website performance, we used Firebase for authentication and storing users’ data, thus avoiding numerous API requests.
Have a great idea for a web product?
We know how to bring it life.
Solution delivered
Complex accommodation search for expats
When users put in their criteria, the application displays a local map with relevant and available settlement options. Users can dynamically change available filters to narrow the accommodation search for expats or see the most efficient way from home to work.
UX and UI
We used Semantic UI to build a visually-appealing UI design of the MVP solution according to the company's identity. Thanks to the intuitive user flow, the interface is convenient and easy-to-use, which boosts user experience of the expat housing platform.
Google Maps Integration
Customers see custom styled pop-ups for accommodation options on the local map in real-time mode. The windows display the main lodging description with several images, address, the price per week, and included house facilities.
Search wizard
Search wizard allows users to specify all their preferences in a quiz with animation effects. When the wizard is submitted, expats will see the most relevant accommodation offers. Users can further download PDF reports which contain specified attributes, relevant neighbourhoods, and available residences.
Google Distance Matrix API
One of the great features of the search expat housing platform is that expats can see the most accurate routes from a selected house to a specific destination point, with distance and duration indicators. To build this functionality, we used Google Distance Matrix API. To ensure its fast work, we used Firebase to store and cache the preferences. It helps avoid making tons of API requests each time users change attributes.
Attribute ranking algorithm to simplify accommodation search for expats
Our team built an attribute ranking algorithm that allows us to dynamically generate the most suitable lodging for users based on the specified attributes. This mechanism helps narrow the search and offer the most accurate and needed option.
Technologies
React
Redux
ANTdesign
POSE
Firebase
React Google maps
React Geosuggest
CSS animations
Integrations
Maps JS API
Places API
Geocoding API
Directions API
Distance Matrix API
“It was a real pleasure to work on such an interesting project. On the technical side, it was great to work with Firebase, Google Maps Directions and Distance Matrix APIs and deepen our expertise.
Our team was truly inspired by the idea of building an MVP for a search expat housing platform. And for me, that’s the beauty of software development - creating powerful solutions to the real problems that people encounter. It was a really valuable experience for our team.”
Eugene
Front-end Developer at Codica
Let’s build a great custom product together!
What’s next?
- 1. Our Sales Manager Taya will be in touch with you within 1 business day.
- 2. We will sign the NDA if required, and start the project discussion.
- 3. Our custom software development experts will analyze your requirements and suggest the best ways to bring your idea to life.
