When I first met Mr. Mirabile, the CEO of Pubblimania, he proposed his idea of creating a customer loyalty software. It was not to be the usual software, but under the hood, it was meant to provide the best user experience for the user.

That was the moment when the construction of Cartashopping began!

After a couple of quick meetings, we established a roadmap which was then implemented. Here too, a solid project was needed that, even after several years, still allows for minor improvements without overhauling the code.

Infrastructure

Having already the number of customers, thanks to the analysis performed by Mr. Mirabile, was a good starting point. The decision to balance the workload across multiple servers proved successful since the data-entry, messaging, backend, and SMS dispatch systems were separated from each other. Part of this ecosystem was quickly developed thanks to Amazon AWS.

Mobile first?

During development, I proposed focusing the UX on the notebook/tablet experience. Pubblimania’s customers, in fact, used fixed clients/workstations and we needed to connect hardware equipment such as barcode readers and various types of printers. For this reason, we decided not to create an app (despite the market orientation towards app publishing). This allowed us to concentrate on optimizing the already existing ecosystems.

Error control

The workflow had to predict any errors caused by operators. For this reason, thanks to Pubblimania’s graphic design experience, a color scheme was defined that could be easily associated with the different functions of the software (issuing a new card, loading and unloading points, managing master records). This stratagem allowed operators to familiarize themselves with the interface in a few days and to work with the software even in times of stress.

Security

The generation of millions of loyalty cards poses a security problem. The card must be robust enough to prevent the various codes on it from being counterfeited or stolen. I developed an algorithm capable of cross-referencing the information and making the card unique. To date, no incidents have been reported.

Thank you mr. Mirabile, it’s been a pleasure working with you and your fantastic team!