A year ago, Lanars started working with Memento U, a startup building a platform that allows people from all regions in Norway to ease their way into fitness training and various types of sports. Users that join the platform can select if they want to be service providers or clients. There are two service provider roles - Memento Trainers and Activity partners. It’s also possible for a user to have all three roles within the app at the same time. There are different requirements for different roles. Anyone can be registered as an Activity partner, but you need to have a degree in fitness or related field and a certain amount of experience to be approved as a Memento Trainer. Memento U is focused on bringing exercise to users. People can book training at home, in their favourite park, or even in their office. Memento Trainers come to their clients and Activity partners organize events all around Norway that users can attend. While Memento U is a platform for anyone who wants to exercise, it’s target customers are people with sedentary lifestyles, who want to increase their level of physical activity, but aren’t sure where to start and might feel intimidated by an extensive gym routine. Memento U also has the important social goal of connecting people and providing a comfortable platform for socializing. Prior to launching Memento U, our clients had already been working in the fitness and sports industry for years. They were able to bring lots of relevant experience to the table when it came to designing the Memento U concept. Memento U is a platform with two native mobile apps (iOS and Android) and two web-based apps: an admin panel and a personal dashboard for Trainers. The platform makes it easy for anyone to join while taking steps to build a safe community. As with many other social platforms, Memento U has built-in safety mechanisms such as an approval system for Trainers and Activity Partners. Anyone who wants to offer training through the app needs to have their profile reviewed by an admin to certify that they have the necessary qualifications. From the beginning, the Memento U team designed their product to combat a number of difficulties that similar products often face. RESPOND TO CHALLENGES How did Memento U respond to these challenges and bridge the gap between users and service providers? Ensuring user safety by introducing service provider approvals and Memento U certification All Trainers and Activity Partners who join Memento U must submit basic information about themselves, including details about education and relevant work experience, to the admin for approval. Profiles of Trainers and Activity Partners must be approved before they’re visible in search or able to accept bookings. Users and service providers who post offensive content can be reported by other users and blocked by the admin. The app also provides an SOS button that lets users end their training at any time without paying for it if they feel unsafe or abused. This tool can be used by Trainers as well, which is particularly important for one-on-one sessions. The SOS button ends the training and also provides a form for submitting a complaint to the admin. Meeting the needs of each user with the help of custom search and suggestions. Meeting the needs of each user with the help of custom search and suggestions The Extended search facility helps match each user with Trainers or Activity Partners that are a perfect fit for their needs. Users can filter search results by various criteria, including personal goals such as losing weight, gaining muscle mass, improving posture, preventing stress, or rehabilitation. Trainers specialize in particular types of exercise, which users can also filter by. Offering personalized suggestions for events and friends Memento U believes in the importance of community as a force that helps people become more active. At the same time, they understand that to retain users they need to provide them with content that’s adapted to meet their needs. That’s why Memento U added a personalized suggestion feature to help users find new friends on the platform and events to participate in. How does it work? Suggestions show users in the same area who share similar interests. Suggested events can be those happening nearby or those that match a user’s personal goals. Making sure users and Trainers can easily meet Users can set their preferred training location on the map and see all service providers in their area. By moving a pin on the map, users can move the search area to find Trainers close to their work, home, or even their favourite spot in the park. When users are searching for service providers, they can also see different types of facilities (such as training centres) that Memento U partners with. It’s been a year since the MVP version of the Memento U app was launched in Oslo and Trondheim. Today, Memento U works in all regions of Norway. Allowing the same user to have three different roles (profiles) on the platform We had to add a feature on the server side to enable schedule cross-checks. In short, the same user can book different activities under different profiles But training that a user hosts as a service provider can’t overlap with training they attend as a client. This capability also affected the “break time” logic in the app. A break time is a fixed amount of time (which Trainers can set in their profiles) that the platform automatically adds between training sessions to make sure service providers have enough time to get between venues. Handling location data and enabling search based on GPS coordinates Handling location-related data in a fast and reliable way is crucial for any on-demand app. With Memento U, we also got the opportunity to use PostGIS, a piece of software that provides spatial objects for PostgreSQL, allowing developers to store and query location and mapping information in databases. We used PostGIS to create work zones — custom regions across the entire map of Norway in which Trainers can register and be found by clients. We also used PostGIS to enable search and sorting of results based on distance. Sign up User flow Select your role First login flow Networking We have used our own service based on Alamofire to optimize work with requests, as well as introduced an error handling and versioning system that is synchronized with the backend. Location services We have used Google Maps and Google Places services APIs to enable searches for service providers in different regions of Norway, as well as a customized event search to show users all events that are happening close to them. We have also implemented a dynamic search based on radiuses that users can scale up or down. Payment Gateway Since the app allows users to access paid events and trainings, we have integrated Stripe SDK. Chat Custom push notifications service All the main interactions with the app result in push notifications. Users receive notifications about being invited to events and training, while service providers are notified in real time if somebody requests their services via the app. Calendar Each user has access to their calendar that displays this user’s personal schedule.