This case is not about creating a top-notch app from scratch. It’s about adding value to an existing one by engaging developers’ expertise in the design stage.
As a result, we are creating a set of predefined building blocks and utilities to help delivering a white-label product. It’s not just a component library; it’s an entire design language that defines layout, transitions between states and form handling. It’s built with accessibility and user in mind.
We are increasing the product’s appeal to enterprises while simultaneously delivering a significant improvement in user experience.
The developers helped creating a project that broadly takes accessibility into account at every level – supporting not only usage by people with disabilities but also everyday usage in different conditions such as using the application in bright sunlight or using just one hand.
The app in question is a financial solution that manages finances and currency conversion, available for browsers and mobile devices.
It enables companies to manage and monitor the finances of individual divisions. Employees can have physical or virtual cards for company expenses, and there are features like established budgets, resource allocation, and expenditure monitoring. Additionally, employees can submit applications for financial resources.
The app is also available for private users, enabling convenient currency exchange and payments at home and abroad.
While creating an app like this, it’s obvious that we need different payment methods, strong security, expenditure charts, and so on. What’s less obvious is the need for great accessibility to enhance user experience for everyone.
Even less obvious is the creation of a white-label product to enable enterprises to apply their visual identification.
That’s why we are now taking this app to a new level.
Typically, app development starts with a business need that is transformed into a specification. This specification serves as a foundation for designers to create the project, which later guides developers in coding.
This approach ensures a transparent and clear division of tasks and responsibilities.
However, the quality of the end product largely depends on a feedback loop at every stage.
When business vision, design creation, and development execution are separate processes, insufficient communication between these teams can result in a subpar end product. That’s why we focused on deeper cooperation.
As a result, a few developers actively participated in the design process and gained an understanding of the business foundations of the solution which helped to predict and solve technical problems in advance.
Ultimately, while the design process was longer, the execution was shorter and easier because there were no surprises along the way.
White labeling in software development refers to creating software products or services that can be rebranded and sold by other companies as their own. This practice is common in various industries, allowing businesses to offer robust solutions without investing heavily in development.
It is a way to skip the software development stage, which requires significant investment in time, talent, and technology. White labeling reduces these costs, as the primary development has already been completed.
Since white-label products are typically already tested and proven in the market, the risk associated with product development and launch is significantly lower.
White labeling also enables easy scaling to meet the growing needs of the business. Whether it’s adding new features or handling increased user demand, these products are designed to grow with the business.
From a software development company’s point of view, creating white-label products enables a focus on continuous improvement and innovation, knowing that their partners handle the distribution and branding.
But what does it mean in practice?
The change we are making in the app to make it a white-label product requires programming easy and quick rebranding capabilities.
Currently, adapting the app to a company’s visual identity requires months of developers’ work. We aim to shorten this time to a week or two.
If we can provide this kind of personalization faster and more efficiently, we can offer white labeling on a large scale. It will no longer be a big project every time it’s needed.
Accessibility is mostly associated with adapting apps for people with disabilities, which was our main focus. However, we also analyzed what this app needs to be widely available for everyone, no matter the circumstances.
We addressed aspects like contrast to ensure the screen is always visible, even in bright sunlight, and allow using device font size so it matches user’s preferences.
We’re also leveraging built-in device technology, such as screen readers. As the name suggests, these read the screen to the user, enabling voice control when someone can’t see the screen.
However, using this technology requires developers to mark every element in the code so the screen reader can interpret it correctly and inform the user of its functionality.
For example, if there’s a transaction statement in the app and a search field to find certain transactions, but it isn’t appropriately marked, the screen reader will only identify it as a text field. This would be useless for a person relying on the screen reader, as they wouldn’t know how to use it.
These are just a few examples of accessibility considerations in this project. Many factors need to be accounted for to create an app that doesn’t exclude any users.
We decided to keep the same technology used to build the app initially (React) but apply a modern approach to it.
We are creating a design system to implement white labeling and correct accessibility while maintaining interface consistency.
This design system is a collection of interface elements that will be used to build the entire layout. It’s like Lego – from small pieces, we build larger components, then groups of elements, and eventually, entire screens with features arise from the design system we’ve built.
There’s an additional advantage: it will be easy and relatively quick to add more to the finished design system. Let’s be honest – there’s always something unanticipated or a new feature needed. The product is never truly finished; it’s a living organism in a complex, dynamic world, so it must be flexible and ready for future business decisions.
Creating more value and changing existing applications is not an easy task.
The right approach is crucial. At the very beginning of the design stage, the questions and discussions our developers brought up were invaluable for successful development.
The entire change is designed in detail, including making modifications in a live application with hundreds or even thousands of users.
The final result will significantly add value to the product for both our clients (thanks to white labeling for easy and quick personalization) and end users (due to improved accessibility).
