NookaClient work
The world's first network of smart proximity office spaces
- Product Consultancy
- Solution Design
- Flutter Development
- Frontend Web Development
- Backend Development
Nooka is an Irish proptech startup on a mission to completely transform the experience of working from home and working remotely.
The need
Nooka identified the growing work from home trend in 2019. However, with the spread of COVID-19 and the increasing demand for a reimagined remote work setup that combines the comfort of a home office with the benefits of a modern workplace creating and launching a functional MVP became an urgent matter.
The product
Nooka is the first global network of smart, modular proximity offices. It's a "plug and play" space equipped with everything you need to work, create and stay connected. Nooka means creativity, productivity and increased attention, in a smart and accessible office that can be booked and paid without human interaction and controlled via a mobile and a web app.
All Nooka models come with a desk, chair, wardrobe, whiteboard, a TV, high-speed wi-fi, and a set of features like a smart lock, air quality, lighting, heating & cooling system that can be controlled within the Nooka mobile app. Dimensions, equipment, price and features vary.
The market
Europe with plans to extend the service to the US in the future.
The audience
Nooka is designed for anyone who wants to work remotely all while staying productive and focused.
Nookian
The owner of the space. An entrepreneur who can rent it to others for profit, or use it himself.
Nookster
The user of the space. A tenant who can use any public Nooka available in the network.
Mobile App
The mobile application is dedicated to Nooksters, allowing them to make reservations and pay for their bookings, as well as customize their experience by controlling the smart tech that Nooka is equipped with.
Booking
Users can find available Nookas around them, explore their features and book one for a date and time interval of their choice. An instant booking can also be initiated by scanning the QR code of a Nooka.
In-App Payment
Nooksters can add their card details to the mobile app and pay for their stay with just a few taps.
Smart Controls
These functionalities let users lock and unlock their Nooka and set the room temperature and light intensity according to their preferences.
Web App
The web application is for Nookians, an admin interface allowing them to rent and manage their Nookas, users and bookings.
Manage Nookas
Owners can write an appealing description and upload complementary images of their Nookas to attract renters and earn revenue.
Manage Bookings
Nookians can view and delete reservations and get an overview of their Nooka’s occupancy in a calendar or list view.
Troubleshooting
The smart controls and sensors can be tested and adjusted from the interface of the Nooka Web app.
Offer Discounts
To attract users, Nookians can create and offer discount codes for their locations.
Challenges + solutions
Challenge 1:
Co-producing with 4 other teams
Shaping Nooka’s concept into a functional product with all its physical and digital components required the coordinated and highly effective collaboration of a total of 5 different teams: a manufacturer, 2 IoT providers, a design team and Halcyon Mobile.
Solution:
Collaborative Framework
We assembled a dedicated development team led by an eager Product Manager who worked closely with Nooka’s PO. We followed a slightly customized version of the agile methodology and ran 2-week sprints which made rapid and frequent iterations possible.
Naturally, good communication, responsiveness and intelligent decision-making strategies were all part of the framework we established to adopt to maximize our joint efforts and deliver a delightful yet stable MVP that could hit the ground running.
Challenge 2:
Provided designs
When we picked up the project, the designs for the Nooka applications were already completed. However, as appealing as the designs were, we felt we could improve the flow and structure to ensure a truly delightful and flawless user experience. It was clear that the provided design and wireframes had to be deconstructed, polished and completed in order to define the product, its features, user flows, use cases and edge cases. All this while taking technical feasibility, constraints and Nooka’s future plans into consideration.
Solution:
Solution Design & KPI-Centric Product Consultancy
As a first step we revised every shared material and inside information in detail, broke down and cleaned them up, then reassembled and prioritized them to create a roadmap that factored in constraints and factors like feasibility, technology, quality, user experience, deadline, budget and Nooka’s future plans for internationalization.
While the product was being developed every situation, change and opportunity was handled with focus on reaching KPIs like user acquisition, conversion and retention.
Challenge 3:
Hard deadline
In order to quickly grab the opportunity that COVID-19 has created around alternative work arrangements, and address the increasing demand for innovation in this sector, Nooka’s timeline for developing a fully functional mobile app and a web component were three months.
Solution:
Solutions that beat time
To accelerate their time-to-market we compressed the full product life cycle in a relatively short time and opted for Flutter as our technology for the mobile apps, which allowed us to create both the iOS and Android versions with a single codebase.
Also, to make things run smoothly we have built the backend to act as an aggregator which streamlines the communication between the mobile application and the various IoT providers and hardware types.
Challenge 4:
2 different IOT technologies
Nooka integrated with two different IoT providers. One of them relied on an MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) broker while the other connected to a custom-built, managed system over a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) connection. The difference in the flow of data and communication protocol was quite significant, and needed to be abstracted away from the mobile client.
Solution:
Server-driven UI
In order to provide a single API interface for the mobile app, we’ve come up with a unified, backend-driven, UI-data interface that drives the UI regardless of the underlying implementation. This lets us swap IoT providers or expose different capabilities (read: controls) on a per Nooka basis without the need of a new build of the mobile app.
Tech stack
Mobile
Flutter with underlying Dart language
Google Maps SDK
Firebase - deep links,notifications
Stripe - payment provider
Social Login - Apple & Facebook
Backend
Typescript
NestJS for web application framework
NodeJS
Prisma ORM
AWS: ECS (for API), Aurora (for database)
MQTT
Stripe
Frontend
Typescript
ReactJS
Tailwind CSS
AWS: S3 (for web admin),Cloudfront
Webpack
