SoKu is a first of it’s kind social “chill” app for legal marijuana users to connect and chat with one another. Users create digital avatars to represent themselves in the app. They can then choose to be paired randomly with someone else online, or search for other user’s based on specific matching criteria. As they meet others, they can form Connections and group their friends in to Circles.
Lynx Creative Works has been the primary developer for SoKu since the beginning. We started with mockups and prototype ideas, then once the design was finalized, transitioned into creating the MVP. We coordinated with our design partners and potential users to come up with the UX Flow, then iterated on the design from an iOS Prototype to now a beta-ready product.
Additionally, we built a Node.js server that hosts the website for SoKu, and serves as the API endpoint for the iOS application. The server handles communication with our backend service provider, and hosts a socket.io server that handles pairing users together and real-time chat.
The iOS app is built using Objective-C and leverages the SpriteKit framework for the Avatar Builder. A native socket.io client is integrated in to the app as well, which connects to the socket.io server to perform the chat functionality. The app also utilizes the QuartzCore framework for drawing shapes and animations.
SoKu has evolved from a concept, to a prototype, to now a beta-ready product that will be released on the Apple App Store in late 2018.
