How To Build Future-Proofed Applications | Part 2 - The application

In part 1 of this series we've introduced our goal as an open organization, and the open-source projects we're working on. In this article we'll dive deeper into our proof-of-concept application that will be the subject for the rest of the series: Comify.

Comify is a social media platform that leverages comics for communication. The idea is simple: take or upload a picture, add speech bubbles and share with others. These others can be related or unrelated users, depending on the view you're looking at. Comics can be liked, and users can react with a comment or another comic.

To be transparent, this idea is not new. In 2012 one of Masking Technologies founders used it for a startup. Due to the strong competition at the time and the last-minute turndown of an incubator, the project failed. The lack of time and money prevented the building of a complex, scalable system. This forced the application to be kept small and simple. Since it never had the chance to grow this was never a problem. But what would have happened if the project succeeded and faced extensive growth? Indeed: "Houston, we have a problem". And this is exactly why we think Comify is a perfect fit for us right now.

The primary goal of Comify is to build a future-proofed application as a practical showcase. Functionally, we want to create something usable, relatable and fun. Technically, we want to keep it childishly simple, while remaining scalable. We are aware that these things bite each other and that we need to make compromises along the way. But we try to get as far as we can. In the process of doing it we keep learning and improving.

But building an application without practical use doesn't feel right for us. So, we have a secondary goal in mind. The original Comify has proven to work very well for events. It allowed attendees to engage in a fun way by sharing their thoughts in comics. Besides in the app, the comics were also shown on screens throughout the event. This was a great trigger for attendees to join. The past year we've visited many conferences. Some to attend, others to speak. Many of them use an app that allows networking and engaging, but it's mostly serious and misses the 'fun' factor. That's where we think Comify can be a great addition. We haven't coined the idea at any conference yet. If you have any ideas, tips or tricks, sharing them with us will be appreciated!

With that we hope we have given you a basic idea of the application we're working on. Although the project is still at an early stage, it can already be found on GitHub. In the next article we'll share more about our development approach. From there, we'll cover every phase of the process, from requirements to maintenance.

See you in the next one!

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