Case study

The platform has been designed and implemented to receive and publish open feedback and also to address sensitive feedback moderated in a secure way by dedicated Case Managers. Together with the Sonder Design team, ZGF host organisation, and local communities across the globe we have designed and developed from scratch a platform, that is well-secured and independent.

It is officially launched and hosted in Zambia, Philippines, Indonesia, Somalia, Poland, and Ukraine and is also open to anyone around the world. It is available in 12 languages including RTL - Arabic. The application has machine translation integrated to improve the moderation process and make every story available in all supported languages.

Loop platform at the moment offers 6 channels to submit your story: web, SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram and the new IVRR voice channel. New channels and languages coming soon.

Technologies used:

Node.js
AWS
Google Cloud
Nest.js
Angular
Lokalise
Google Analytics
Piwik PRO
Airtable
Twilio
Facebook
WhatsApp
Telegram
Cloudflare
Gitlab
Text Link

SCOPE OF WORK

A safe mechanism for recipients of aid to feedback on humanitarian and development assistance

The assumption of the platform is to reduce the digital divide through technology and open up to technologically cut-off, marginal communities. The platform gives the opportunity to share feedback and ask for help in a native, convenient way for these people, both verbally and in writing through various channels that are safe for them.

Services we did for them:

Tech support at every design stage of the entire project every new milestone.

Designed and developed from scratch:

  • Angular frontend application with a mobile-first approach
  • NestJS backend application fulfilled with serverless AWS lambda functions
  • The entire platform is set on AWS cloud infrastructure
  • Direct SMS integration with country telecommunication providers in Zambia and the Philippines + global SMS integration using Twilio
  • Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram smart bot integration
  • Direct IVRR integration with Somalian and Zambian MNO (Mobile Network Operators)
  • Integrations with external services: Airtable, Google Cloud
  • Multilingual support: Lokalise
  • Continuous maintenance in the context of platform security, durability, reliability and usability

Where it works:

2020
Zambia
2021
Philippines
Indonesia
2022
Poland
Ukraine
Somalia

Project development

2020

MVP - we built a fully working product in 3 months, an application to use within the web, using the IBM Carbon design system to confirm the hypothesis that the market needs such a product. Due to the fact that we had a limited dev and design budget, we used a ready-made IBM Carbon design system. The platform enabled sharing and searching through feedback in the basic version. The first country where we released the application was Zambia, in cooperation with ZGF, the first partner organisation.

2021

Design and development of our own original design system - Equity

Direct SMS integration with MTN, Zamtel and Airtel in Zambia, plus integration with SMS Globe in the Philippines

Implemented sensitive feedback Loop channel

Integrated a multi-lang supported by machine translation based on AWS MT and Google Cloud MT. From now on the platform is able to support many languages including Arabic RTL

Developed a statistics board with qualitative and quantitative data analysis for incoming feedback

Integration of a smart chatbot for Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp as the next new channels of communication.

2022

Design and development of a brand new IVRR channel addressed
to Somalia according to the needs of local people

Re-worked flow for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger smart bots

Infrastructure security audit, which we passed without
a single high-risk vulnerability

Number of improvements based on our experience which
we have learned using the platform across continents and countries

2023

Responding to the needs and habits of the Ukrainian population, we introduced Telegram smart bot integration

General platform improvements, cost optimization, and security audits in terms of vulnerability.

Changing infrastructure from classic server to serverless architecture for scalability

For users and organizations, we are working on the so-called UX/UI usability improvements, including improvements with story location, moderation flow and organization management.

Possibility of exporting feedback data to a CSV file

Challenges to overcome

Developing websites and web applications requires expertise in multiple areas, including user experience, functionality, accessibility, and security. During the development phase of projects, our team of experts faced intriguing challenges and found great solutions to them. This is where you can dive into the details!

What our client says

Alex Ross

Managing Director
Loop is a new Start Up Charity and has been working instep with Marek and his team at Elite Crew since we started. Not only am I satisfied with the end product which you can see at Talk To Loop but I am also impressed with the close and collaborative working relationship we have to problem solve, ideate, prioritise work together as well as, and just as importantly, the relationship they have with our different country partnerships. Working closely with local staff in different contexts to ensure they have what is needed to run the tool effectively and to integrate it into the local systems and approaches.

Ciarán Duffy

UX Design Lead at Sonder Design Collective
The team was able to build a fully functional and scalable MVP for the platform in under 12 weeks. The company appreciated how friendly and pleasant the team was when working with them on this project. They now look forward to working with them again on another project.

Project in numbers

4200

stories on the platform!

180

sensitive stories concerning threats to life

9

different technologies used

6

people engaged in the project

3

years of cooperation

available in 6 different countries
more than 400 organizations on the platform
Krzysztof Kura
Back-End Developer

I deal with the development of the application on the backend layer. The implementation of solutions in the discussed application is invariably a big challenge for me. The fact that the introduced functionalities really help many people and organizations scattered all over the world gives additional satisfaction from the work performed. I am proud to say that I am working on an application that gives opportunities that I have not encountered in other applications. For example, our solutions can be used freely by users who cannot read and write.

Wojciech Błądek
Quality Assurance

Loop as a platform that I had to test was a huge challenge in terms of the functionalities used. In this application, we can make many combinations that we do not even know about, each time this application surprises me, very often it finds errors, for example from translations to usually search fields, with IVRR I had the pleasure to work from the very beginning, I spent many hours during testing the application itself in terms of functionality and design in Inbox and Outbox. Additionally, testing the scheduler for an automatic option that calls back the user when they cannot answer it was quite a challenge, and so far it is. Social bots are also nice to remember. A lot happened before the defects were removed from the flow. What I can say is that the platform is quite large and the application is constantly developing :))

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