We Shipped An Offline Mobile Impact Data App
New Story is a nonprofit that builds homes and communities for families living in survival mode around the world. We believe technology is a force multiplier for impact. Learn more here -> newstorycharity.org
What did we build?
In plain English, we built an iPhone app that our local partners use to complete surveys (with or without internet connection). These surveys allow New Story to collect impact data on the families we help. Why does that matter? Impact data allows for us to measure health, income, and education to determine what has changed since the family moved into their new home. More on our Impact Data program here.
Why did New Story build this tool internally?
We started our Impact Data program approx. 1.5 years ago and since then have used off the shelf tools (mainly formyoula.com) to mixed success. One of the biggest pains was finding a tool that consistently worked offline/without internet. This was simply a non-negotiable since the majority of our work is located in very rural parts of the world where internet is inconsistent or more often nonexistent.
Additionally, we found it challenging to manage collection of surveys from remote workers in the field. No 3rd party tool we researched had this functionality. For example, our surveyors don’t need to think about which family needs surveying or how many families to surveys. Instead they need to be focused on collecting the best survey and without bias. With a simple My Tasks view the user can see what is outstanding and what their focus for the day should be (see below).
Technical Challenge :: Working Offline
One of the biggest technical challenges we’ve faced as a tech team has been building an app that’s offline-first. Offline-first creates issues around local/on-the-phone data storage, file sizes, and syncing with the server/uploading (just to name a few).
For example, each survey includes approx. 4–6 pictures, 2–3 audio files and 30+ text answers. This data has to be saved on-the-phone in an organized way so that when the app detects a connection it can upload the data to our internal platform (which we call the Monolith). Additionally, the app stores all translated words on-the-phone due to the fact words cannot be auto-translated into the local language when offline.
Our app is built with React Native + Redux (for offline functionality). In order to ship a solid product we enlisted the help of App and Flow, a development shop based in Canada. We would not have been able to complete this project without their tremendous work.
Next Steps
Currently, we’re rolling this tool out to our local teams in El Salvador, Haiti, and Mexico. We will continue to iterate and improve the app with a hope that in future versions this tool will become something any nonprofit/NGO could use. That will require us to re-build the app, but hypotheses and beliefs must be data-tested and data-influenced.
If a nonprofit is doing the same thing year over year without changing, then learning/improving isn’t happening. Impact data is fundamental to maximizing impact. To learn more about how we measure impact visit newstorycharity.org/impact.
👋 Thanks for reading and learning more about how we do what we do at New Story!
If your nonprofit/NGO is interested in becoming one of the first to use New Story’s impact data tool, please email us at matthew [at] newstorycharity.org.
