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canopy, canopy, canopy, canopy, canopy,
Introduction
Canopy aims to revolutionise renting, while also helping people on the way to a better life. Their products are designed to make renting faster, fuss-free and fairer for everyone involved – renters, agents and landlords alike.
With increasing success and a fresh round of investment, Canopy reached out to Studio Graphene for help designing and building their mobile app and web platform.
We started the project with several days of brainstorming sessions that included all teams involved. We made sure we could use and improve as much of what had already been developed as possible.
They wanted to offer more functionality offering a whole host of new tools to their user base, as well as overhaul the look and feel across their digital ecosystem.
Solution
We worked collaboratively to create tools and features for the app. Generating and sharing ideas across teams was vital: in our first week, we shared our own experiences of renting property in London, and looked at competitors to work towards what would be interesting, useful and appealing from a B2C perspective.
Rental budget and affordability are potentially quite dry and information-laden subjects, so we thought about how to make it engaging and simple. We implemented a great number of visual aids, iconography and tutorials to guide users through all the features and help them get the most out of the new platform.
New features asked users to link their bank accounts to Open Banking, so we were also working to establish trust and educate customers on the features’ merits and security. We’ve continued to evolve the core B2C feature of Rent Tracking over the last 12 months and have implemented a subscription model to generate monthly recurring revenue for the business.
We worked closely with Canopy’s own engineering team, who were responsible for the B2B elements, to build the app using ReactNative for Web, and to create iOS, Android and web versions of the product. The backend was built using Nodejs.
Microservices architecture allowed the teams to work on the product simultaneously, for a more efficient way of working, and, ultimately, a more robust build. We also offered DevOps and infrastructure suggestions, like using Elasticsearch and implementing a new GIT branching model.
Finally, we took everything we learned and built Canopy’s new website with WebFlow. This solution was chosen because it is low-code, low-maintenance, and reduces costs down the line. The website was carefully crafted following the branding agency’s work, implementing all the new elements and the tone of voice of Canopy, to make the brand cohesive across all platforms.
Microservices architecture allowed the teams to work on the product simultaneously, for a more efficient way of working, and ultimately a more robust build. We also offered DevOps and infrastructure suggestions, like using Elasticsearch and implementing a new GIT branching model.
Finally, we took everything we learned and built Canopy’s new website with WebFlow. This solution was chosen because it is low-code, low-maintenance, and reduces costs down the line. The website was carefully crafted following the branding agency’s work, implementing all the new elements and the tone of voice of Canopy, to make the brand cohesive across all platforms.
Results
Canopy has a refreshed and enhanced mobile app, and a new website on a low-code platform, with high flexibility and low maintenance costs. The new website’s visual identity and tone of voice is also in accordance with new branding, appealing to a diverse audience of renters, agents and landlords.
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