IMPORTANT NOTICE!
Client
End Users
Project Overview
Our client is a startup based in Germany that was researching the possibility of building an MVP concept of the online tool that could help knowledge workers in multiple industries, but primarily in the legal field, to easily create long and complex structured documents for their research work consisting of the individual references and parts of multiple documents from various sources, such as online articles or PDF documents.
Since the primary goal was to simplify the data-capturing process, it was important that our users could capture data and add to their projects with the least possible number of required actions. This requirement forced us to build a custom Chrome extension that would make a single-click capturing experience possible, primarily using the native capabilities of the browser itself.
While seamless data capturing was among the first challenges, we also had to ensure that heavy sets of transferred information were effectively structured in our databases so that later users could easily organize them into smaller pieces, use them within one or more projects, and build complex hierarchical structures.
Challenge
Since our team took over the project at the very early stages, the main challenges were to properly collect core functional and non-functional requirements from the main stakeholders and decide upon the right approach to implementation, especially regarding capturing content from online resources.
The next significant challenge was the data storage format in the databases since the project assumed an extensive data flow. In the case of big projects and multiple sources, amounts of data stored by one user could reach significant ranges.
Last but not least, the challenge was the safety of the stored data. Since the primary market of the solution is the legal industry, which already stands under multiple data privacy regulations, it was critical to delivering a highly secure solution.
Solution
In order to start the project, our team has proposed to divide the solution into two parts – a web application and a Chrome extension. The web application is a working space that allows users to interact with clipped or uploaded content and documents and create, save, and manage multiple projects. In turn, the Chrome extension would allow users to clip and transfer content from online resources as quickly as possible.
In order to ensure consistency of the data format, our team decided to convert and store all content, including uploaded PDF documents, in the form of HTML files that later gave us unlimited flexibility for further editing and structuring in the application.
To ensure the security of the application and its data, all the databases and data flows have been encrypted at rest and in transit. In addition to that, all information was accessible only by the user who created it, with no access for system administrators. Then, we also decided to follow the OWASP security standards to align our measures with industry-wide best practices.
Result
Upon completion of the MVP scope, our team created a functional solution with all the core features approved during the discovery phase – the Chrome extension that allows users to capture and saves content from over the web; a versatile and secure web application with the sophisticated editing and structuring capabilities; a custom engine for processing PDF documents, and other features.
The MVP version was taken to the testing by the client in order to gather feedback from the potential users and define features that need to be added on the next versions. Some couple of months later, based on the positive feedback from the potential users, we kicked off the second phase of development with even broader possibilities – such as offline mode, team collaboration, and other features.
