PHP Development
Laravel
Yii
About The Client
Arcbazar was founded in 2010 by Imdat As, Master of Science in Architecture, Design and Computation, and Doctorate in Digital Media. This mixture of Imdat’s interests grew into his unique idea of a marketplace for independent designers.
CHALLENGE
When Arcbazar teamed up with Greenice, the online designer marketplace was already launched and needed maintenance and new features.
In the pre-development analysis and estimation step, we identified the main challenges of the project:
- The project was written in a combination of Yii1 and self-written framework. The tangled code slowed down further development.
- The platform needed to be scaled up internationally, but there was no localization.
- Some users had trouble setting the award sum for their projects and abandoned the platform.
SOLUTION
Our team has made significant improvements to the client's marketplace. By refactoring the existing code, we have made the platform more efficient and user-friendly. Additionally, we have added support for 10 languages and 13 currencies, making it accessible to a wider range of customers.
One of the most exciting features we have implemented is an ML-powered award suggestion system. This system analyzes user behavior and recommends awards that are most likely to be of interest to them. This has resulted in increased engagement and customer satisfaction.
Our role in the project:
Refactoring
Localization and other new features
Award Suggestion Mechanism (AI)
Refactoring
We converted all the code to Yii1. This improved the structure and decreased the time for implementation of new features. In terms of security, we also separated servers for storing website, database, and other data using EC2 of AWS.
Localization and other new features
We made the website multilingual (10 languages) and introduced multi-currency (13 currencies) to make it usable for people from different parts of the world.
We added the ‘Tagging’ feature, and now designers are able to indicate where users can buy decor and furniture that they see in the project.
Previously, Arcbazar used only PayPal for payments. We added multiple payment methods and created ‘My Bank’ for designers to easily withdraw their earnings.
We used the ElasticSearch engine to enhance the search speed and accuracy of results.
We added a possibility to ‘Follow’ favorite designers.
We made a ‘Competition Wall’ where designers ask the clients questions in a similar manner to a Facebook thread. All names of designers are encrypted while they participate in the contest to avoid fraud and favoritism.
We introduced a rating system for designers. Their score, as well as reputation, is increased when designers participate in projects.
Award Suggestion Mechanism (AI)
When clients post contests, they must set the award sum that they will pay the winners. The price is determined by the client’s experience and budget. However, this step becomes a hindrance for many clients and some even abandon the process out of a fear they will not arrive at a suitable award amount.
The higher the award, the greater the number of designers who participate. If a client sets the award too low they risk attracting too few participants and failing to find a desirable design.
To solve this issue, first, we added the ‘Award recommendation’ feature which suggested a price, taking into account several variables like project type, score, and sizes. It was already quite good, but we made the mechanism more precise with Machine Learning.
The new award-suggestion mechanism learns from over 1,500 competitions that took place at Arcbazar. Thus, the AI-driven system suggests awards based on the results of similar projects. Each time a new project is completed, the database is updated and the system learns again and again to fine-tune itself. To provide more precision, we created a module based on Natural Language Processing that can read text descriptions and understand the details that influence the price.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The Largest Global Crowdsourcing Marketplace for Architects According to Wikipedia, “Arcbazar is the first and largest global marketplace for crowdsourcing architecture projects. Arcbazar disrupts traditional methods of design acquisition with an online marketplace platform, enabling designers to compete and collaborate on design contests; and, customers to receive multiple design solutions in an online environment at a lower cost and faster delivery speed.”
Obama Presidential Center and Library Competition According to Wikipedia, “Arcbazar is the first and largest global marketplace for crowdsourcing architecture projects. Arcbazar disrupts traditional methods of design acquisition with an online marketplace platform, enabling designers to compete and collaborate on design contests; and, customers to receive multiple design solutions in an online environment at a lower cost and faster delivery speed.”
Google for Startups Arcbazar has been selected among a hundred companies to join Google's Brand Accelerator Program which began on July 1, 2019.
BENEFITS FOR THE CLIENT
Overall, our team's efforts have resulted in a more robust and successful marketplace for our client.
TECHNOLOGIES
Imdat As