ORCHARDVILLE

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The Orchardville Society first approached Scaffold with an app idea in 2019 and decided at that time it wasn’t something they could pursue. However, when COVID hit our shores, it become evident to the team at Orchardville that it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to contact both staff and service users effectively.

We were tasked with the design and development of a bespoke mobile app that allowed the team at Orchardville to list news and events in both a public and private capacity. We had to ensure Orchardville could present content to their service users as well as all staff working with Orchardville. Therefore, we decided to split the app into public and private news. The public news can be viewed by anyone who downloads the app. To view private news, users must be logged into their account with the credentials created by System Administrators in a bespoke Laravel based content management system.

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OBJECTIVES

The Orchardville Society wanted to design and develop an app in line with their brand guidelines that made it as easy as possible for both staff members and service users to access news and events information. As part of this project, we also needed to develop a bespoke content management system that would allow Orchardville to manage news, events, and app users.

Orchardville are committed to changing the lives of people living with disabilities and autism, believing that with the right support they can achieve their full potential and their employment aspirations.

It was important for them now more than ever to be able to effectively communicate with their service users. To better do that they wanted an app that would allow them to create news stories with the ability to send bespoke notifications directly to the user’s mobile device. The app was also vital to service users because not all of them had access to a desktop computer or laptop and therefore didn’t use the website as much as they would have liked. However, it was known to the team that most service users had access to a mobile device which meant a mobile first approach was the best solution to meet their needs.

Orchardville also wanted to improve communication with their staff. Prior to having the mobile app Orchardville used a group email inbox to communicate with staff, providing information about news and events. Most staff members only had access to this email account via their desktop computer in the office. This meant that staff could only access this information if they were sitting at their desk in and office, which wasn’t always possible, especially when COVID hit. This truly propelled the need for a more fast and efficient way of contacting the whole team with the most up to date information.

THE OUTCOME

We have released an app for iOS and Android that is fully compatible with smartphone and tablet alongside a Laravel based content management system.

The team at Orchardville can now create news stories that includes text, video, imagery and links. These news stories can be created as public or private with the private news stories being placed behind a login area. Staff members will be directed to the private news section and will have the ability to login using the details that can be created for them by system administrators in the content management system. Alongside both public and private news stories we have a feed from the Orchardville website to the app of their latest events. It also gives service users the ability to keep up to date with all of the latest news and events via their mobile device.