Decentralized content platform: Leveraging micro frontends to achieve 92% scalability
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Project overview
What if you could collaborate with your audience in creating content and solutions — and fairly share the value generated by it? That’s the idea our client, a German startup called Shala, wanted to make a reality. Its platform would create an ecosystem that measures and distributes the created value with all contributors.
But that’s not the platform's only promise. Our client also realized that with traditional content creation and sharing platforms, all content lives on the company’s servers. If those go down or the company decides to remove it for any reason, that content and hundreds of hours of work are simply lost.
With Shala, however, all content is stored in a decentralized network. If one node goes down, copies of the content remain available on other nodes. Such a decentralized ecosystem would give content creators and their collaborators peace of mind — and ensure all content remains truly theirs.
However, implementing such an innovative platform required deep expertise in developing fast, flexible, and convenient solutions. That’s why Shala sought our help.
Services
Challenges
The startup expected an annual user growth rate of over 40%, so the platform had to consistently perform well under strenuous loads. This prompted us to consider and later implement the micro frontend architecture that would maximize the solution’s scalability and speed.
At the same time, our client wanted to be certain the platform met user expectations perfectly. That’s why we were tasked with conducting extensive user testing and refining the platform in iterations to minimize time on task and user error rates.
Our discovery phase revealed our client’s key needs and requirements:
Strategic business needs
01 Launch a decentralized collaborative content creation and sharing platform
02 Achieve an engagement rate of at least 60% within the first six months
03 Secure an annual user growth rate of at least 40%
04 Ensure the system can support the expected user growth without dips in performance
Technical requirements
01 Design a micro frontend architecture for the platform to connect services and ensure high scalability
02 Develop 15+ micro frontends using React and Redux
03 Achieve a scalability index of at least 85% based on the response time under different loads
04 Secure a maintainability index of over 85% for the developed solution
05 Limit response time to <0.5s and latency to <50ms
06 Conduct comprehensive testing to ensure the interface is fast and convenient
07 Limit user error rates to 15% following iterative interface improvements
We’ll help you leverage the micro frontend architecture to secure unparalleled scalability, flexibility, and performance.
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Solutions
To reach the targets set for the platform’s maintainability, performance, and scalability, we opted for the micro frontend (MFE) architectural approach. It enabled us to connect dozens of platform services into a fast solution, keeping the response time under 0.3s and the latency under 50ms.
Using React and Redux, we prototyped and developed 15+ micro frontends, including the Kanban board, content creator (text editor and video uploader), and user circle management. The platform’s capabilities also included user wallets, content sharing, and video conferencing.
Our iterative improvements, smooth navigation, and intuitive content browsing helped the platform secure a 62% user engagement rate and limit user error rates to under 10%. MFE architecture also enabled us to achieve a 92% scalability index and a 91% maintainability index for the solution.
Collaborative content creation
The platform supports two content types: text and video. Users can collaborate to create and edit text-based content with an intuitive editor that supports all common rich text editing features. They can also save their progress in a draft saved on the platform. As for video content, users can upload files, add short descriptions to each one, and easily share videos with others.
We made collaboration in content creation as easy as possible by adding clear contributor roles to user circles and ensuring seamless data syncing across the platform. Our attention to consistent performance ensured that the platform could support any number of contributors using its content-creating features simultaneously.
Content sharing and statistics
Once the content is ready, users can share it with a specific user or a group of users (known as user circles on the platform). It can also be turned into an open page, which makes it publicly available to all users.
Granular access settings to the ready-to-publish content allow for precisely targeted sharing. We refined the corresponding user flows during testing to ensure users can easily navigate the sharing process, minimizing its user error rate to 6%.
Each piece of content includes a view counter and a comment section and can be downloaded by other users. All stats are displayed in intuitive charts that are updated in real time. Thanks to minimized data refreshment latency and intuitive visual communication, users can always view the latest stats and easily grasp content trends at a glance.
Video conferencing for online events
Video conferencing can make certain knowledge-sharing and collaborative tasks easier. That’s why we added a separate micro frontend for it. This frontend allows users to schedule, set up, and hold online events without leaving the platform. Each online event can be briefly described with a topic and a short agenda. Users can also share upcoming online events with their peers to spread the word.
Thanks to our MFE-based approach to the platform’s architecture, video conferencing is as swift and smooth as it could be, with no lag even when the user count spikes.
User circles
User circles are the cornerstone of the platform’s social networking and community-building features. These user groups bring together contributors and facilitate content sharing destined for a specific audience. Within a circle, users can take on different roles, such as Editor, Reviewer, or Steward.
Distinct user roles and streamlined user circle management contributed to the overall ease of use, as proven during our testing. Our interface refinements for these user flows also helped limit the user error rate to 8%.
Content browser
All users can easily browse publicly available content and the content shared with them directly. They can also view its metadata, such as the date added and contributors, and engage with fellow content creators and viewers via the comment section.
Based on user testing, we optimized navigation and content browsing in multiple iterations. As a result, finding the right piece of content is easy and fast. At the same time, users can explore new content at their own pace without any friction in their flows.
Kanban board
Collaborating on any piece of content requires proper task management, so we added a Kanban board to facilitate collaboration and task management. The Kanban board can be easily searched and organized according to users’ preferences and needs. We also implemented granular access management to secure access to Kanban boards.
Thanks to our MFE architecture, the Kanban board can handle a large number of tasks and users without a dip in performance. Besides ensuring scalability in the long run, our optimization efforts also helped the platform drive engagement with smooth user experiences.
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Tech stack
Impact
Our micro frontend architecture and iterative improvements based on extensive user testing enabled us to deliver a platform that showed:
Our modular approach to software architecture will minimize response time and latency even under spikes in request rates.
Contact usTestimonials
The responsiveness, attention to detail and high-level communication from Darly Solutions was outstanding. Communication with the team was all online and was absolutely seamless. They were highly responsive, worked to tight deadlines and provided great feedback and communication throughout the entire project to ensure it remained on schedule and all quality requirements were being met. They exceeded all of our expectations, from design through to delivery.
LLC Darly Solutions's team performs well since the collaboration started. They are fluent in specific programming languages, they are also fluent in English, and they have a great response time. What is most unique and impressive about Darly Solutions is that everyone in the team is inherently communicative and understands the expertise of their respective fields. The team is very agile and can predict stress situations in which we work together to fix and maintain.
Darly Solutions' work so far inspires confidence, as they're skilled and trustworthy. The health platform is incredibly happy with their work. The team at Darly is communicative, responsive, and responsible. I’d recommend them to people looking to do more than build a simple little software.
By collaborating with Darly Solutions, there is a significant improvement in the project's quality of codes compared to their original codebase. They lead efficient project management and keep the client updated with their reports. They're a flexible team that delivers promising results. They don't just do as they're told, they actively participate in the design process, which is going to yield us a much better platform in the end.
Darly Solutions was able to develop the site with all functions running. The team was responsive throughout the engagement. They excelled at scheduling and delivered projects on the specified timeline. The whole team was a pleasure to work with. I am very glad that I entrusted them with my project, this is the best company for me!
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Darly Solutions developed the app in a quick manner, and the code quality was excellent. The professional team was committed to building a successful product. The code quality was good, and the app has been built in a little more than 1 month, which is a result I'm very happy with. They were laid back but professional at the same time.
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