Building Unifai's Scalable Django Application: Custom Software Solution for Analyzing Industrial Time Series Data

Unifai is a company focused on developing software solutions for analysis and labeling of industrial time series data.

Unifai was seeking help to design and develop the front-end of their web application that would allow users to interact with data through various visualizations and forms on the front-end.

The back-end was already built with Django, and Unifai needed a competent partner with experience in designing and developing front-ends for data-intensive applications that can also interact with the existing Django backend.

The Challenge

Unifai faced a challenge in developing a hybrid backend and frontend for their web application. They needed help designing, developing, and interfacing the front-end with the existing backend and launching a user-testable release of the app.

They wanted to work with a team that had a proven track record of delivering solutions with similar scope and who were thought leaders in building scalable Django applications.

The Solution

Unifai chose HackSoft due to our previous experience in working with tools from the Python ecosystem, building cloud apps with Python, and designing and developing front-ends for data-intensive applications.

The project started with evaluating the current design plans for building a hybrid backend and frontend.

After exploring the pros and cons, the team decided to split the backend and front-end into separate projects. HackSoft leveraged the power of React, in order to build the new frontend.

The next step involved extending the functionality of the interactive front-end with the scope required for launch.

The work extended beyond just the front-end, including infrastructure updates like adding Redis caching, database query optimization, introducing additional API endpoints, authentication, and more.

Results and Feedback

The project was delivered on time and according to the initial plan.

Most issues were eliminated during the dev/test stages, providing a stable production environment and a great experience for the users.

I was impressed by the maturity and openness of communication.

They were a very good discussion partner for making hard design choices and I felt they're acting with our best interest in mind. For example, they've suggested temporarily downsizing the team for a few sprints when the scope of work was smaller.

- Lukasz Mentel, CTO & Co-Founder