AkalaTok: Bridging College Admissions Guidance with Short-Form Video Content

CASE STUDY

Client/Company/Project Type

Client: AKALA

Project Type: EdTech Application Development

Landing Page: goakala.com

Project Date

June to August 2023

My Role

As the lead developer, I spearheaded the development of AkalaTok, an innovative application designed to make college admissions guidance accessible through short-form video content. My responsibilities encompassed the full development lifecycle, from ideation and UI/UX design to coding and deployment. I utilized React.js for the frontend to create a dynamic and responsive user interface and Firebase for the backend to manage user data, content delivery, and authentication. This role required a blend of technical problem solving, design sensibility, and a deep understanding of our target users' needs.

About This Project

A Google and GSV-backed startup featured on the hit Netflix documentary Operation: Varsity Blues, AKALA embarked on a mission to democratize access to its premier college admissions guidance using the pervasive medium of short-form video content, popularized by platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. The development of akalaTok aimed to harness this trend to create a dual-purpose tool: serving as both a marketing channel to engage potential AKALA clients and an educational resource for students. By integrating the user-friendly appeal of short-form video with AKALA's esteemed counseling services, akalaTok was designed to offer intuitive navigation and insightful content, wrapped in AKALA's brand aesthetics.

The Challenge

The primary challenge was to develop a platform that could simultaneously serve as an effective marketing tool for AKALA and provide tangible educational value to users. This required:

User Engagement:Crafting an interface and experience that resonated with the teenage demographic, who are avid consumers of short-form video content.

Content Versatility: Ensuring the platform could handle various video formats and sources, making it a versatile tool for content creation and distribution.

Scalability and Management: Implementing a backend system that could accommodate dynamic content updates and scale with user growth.

The Solution

The development of AkalaTok centered around creating an engaging, intuitive, and technologically robust platform that leveraged the best of React.js and Firebase to meet user needs and business goals. Here’s how we addressed the project's challenges:

React.js for Dynamic and Responsive UI/UX: Utilizing React.js, we crafted a responsive and interactive user interface that mirrored the look and feel of popular short-form video platforms. This choice allowed us to create a seamless and familiar experience for users, encouraging longer engagement and frequent use. React.js's component-based architecture enabled rapid development and easy maintenance of the app's features, such as video playback, content categorization, and user interactions.

Rather than building AkalaTok as a native iOS app, we opted for the lightweight solution of a react.js web app, and pointed users to the option of saving AkalaTok to their device home screen for easy access and a full screen UI. This popup briefly appears after 30 seconds on the page to show users how to navigate to the ‘Add to Home Screen’ option in their browser settings.

Firebase for Scalable Backend: Firebase provided a comprehensive suite of backend services that supported the app’s needs for real-time database management, authentication, and hosting. By leveraging Firebase, we implemented a flexible and scalable solution for content management, allowing videos to be uploaded, categorized, and stored efficiently. Firebase’s real-time database enabled instant updates to video content and metadata, managed through a Google Sheets integration, ensuring that the platform remained dynamic and current with minimal manual intervention.

Cross-Platform Video Compatibility: Acknowledging the variety of video formats and sources our content would come from, we built a system that could seamlessly integrate and display videos from MP4 files, YouTube, and other platforms. This ensured that akalaTok could serve as a comprehensive repository of college admissions guidance, regardless of the original content format.

Google Sheets for Content Management: To streamline the process of updating and managing video content, we integrated Google Sheets as a simple, yet powerful, content management system (CMS). This allowed non-technical team members at AKALA to update video links and metadata easily, which the app would then fetch and display in real-time. This approach significantly reduced the complexity and time required to refresh content, enabling akalaTok to stay relevant and engaging.

This solution set not only addressed the immediate technical and user experience challenges but also laid a scalable foundation for future enhancements.

Results

Engagement Metrics: The app achieved significant traction, with metrics indicating high engagement rates, video views, and an increase in AKALA customer inquiries, demonstrating its effectiveness as a marketing and educational tool.

User Feedback: Feedback from students underscored the app's utility and user-friendly design, with many appreciating the direct access to high-quality college admissions guidance.

Reflections: The project reinforced the power of leveraging current digital trends, like short-form video content, to meet educational and business objectives. It highlighted the importance of user-centric design and adaptive content strategies in engaging with a younger audience.

Next Steps and Lessons Learned: Plans for expanding the app include algorithm-based personalized content recommendations and broader subject coverage. A key takeaway was the critical role of agile content management systems in maintaining the relevance and freshness of educational content.