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艾米丽·布鲁斯, a behavior analyst located in the Nashville area, wanted to create a way for children with special needs to interact with each other for the purposes of developing play and social skills. Creating this platform would facilitate the process and allow parents and therapists who care for these children to connect to provide opportunities for positive social interactions.

Though she tried posting these types of social gatherings on Facebook, it was still hard to create such social events.

Emily decided to partner with her friend, Aram Abubaker, to create the 和我一起成长 网络平台, a “place where parents, 看护人, and therapists can find hope and a caring spirit of people, so that children with special needs can engage with other children and improve their social skills and move toward their greatest potential.”

But Emily and Aram knew that, in this ever-changing mobile landscape, that doing a 网络平台 was not enough. 

Emily and Aram decided to create a smartphone application at which time Aram then began to code the“和我一起成长” app platform, which led them to DevDigital. 这两个人认为 platform’s best way to achieve their goals was through an app. 在编码期间 process, Emily and Aram decided to integrate ID verification as an added safety feature. They needed assistance to integrate the API for Identity Mind, as well as the app stores, which is when they connected with DevDigital.

“We are located in Nashville and I was hoping to find a local tech company to assist us, but I wasn't really 搜索ing. Aram编写了这个应用程序, but we knew we need a little help with API集成 for the ID verification and play stores. I connected with (DevDigital Chief 业务 Operator) Stephen Davis on Linkedin and then looked more at the company he was working with. I decided to reach out to him and we met, told him about the app, 我们需要什么, and formed a relationship,艾米丽说。.

“Originally we wanted to create a platform that utilized both a website and app, but Aram suggested using only the app because of some of the limitations we may experience using a website. This included location and ID verification, both of which are easy to use and access with a mobile phone,” 

应用程序开发 was a new world neither had experienced before, but DevDigital’s team of experts in the mobile app realm were able to help them navigate through the pain points of helping connect the proper API endpoints to the app, and all of the miscellaneous phases that come with it.

“The first-time project comes with several challenges,” said Aram. 

“As there is no blueprint or a working prototype to develop the app. Therefore, I had to experiment with several approaches to develop this app. I had to design and develop this project from scratch. 为此目的, I had to improve my designing and development skills, and also learn new technical tools and frameworks. I believe there are several things needed to be done to make a perfect app however, our goal was to create a great product that would help parents of special needs children to find playdates or events to promote play and social skills developments.”

With the help of DevDigital’s expertise in API集成, the 和我一起成长 app was successfully launched on both the Apple and Google Play stores in February. The app has garnered plenty of attention so far, including from Dr. 菲尔。.

The process of creating and testing the app is one that, 艾米丽发现, does not happen overnight. It takes time for app development to be properly done, and even after a successful launch, she knows the journey is not necessarily over yet. 

“The main lesson I learned was patience. When we began the process of development, I did not know tech design and coding would be such a long process. I discovered that when you think you have found a solution for one problem, another one is waiting to be addressed. I also found out that the process is ongoing and that you will continue to discover features that should be part of the platform, which also extends the time to completion. 在某一时刻, you have to just be finished, and save the new features for the next update,艾米丽说。.

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