Team

Client Brief

01

Load and performance improvement of the system

Auto-scaling for ensuring the flawless performance of the high-load system

02

DevOps challenges, security, and scalability improvement

Hosting costs optimization, services for mitigating DDoS attacks integration, performance optimization

03

Building custom software for redactors and content creators

Tools for analytics and marketing, implementation of accessibility requirements for people with low vision

04

Integrations with many third-party services

Cloudflare integration, video and podcast services, AMP framework integration, iframely integration

About Platform

Hromadske.UA is the first in Ukraine media platform, created and controlled by journalists. It’s independent of any kind of authority, politicians or oligarchs, and orientated on the unbiased news.Also, it is the first autonomous media that have its own satellite broadcast, and it is the only informational partner of BBC in Ukraine and a partner of such world-known organizations such as USAID, The World Bank, NATO OTAN, Reuters and others.

Solution

We created a new high-load platform for a wide audience of all ages. As the current audience didn’t stay for a long time on the resource, our tasks were to attract new readers and to hold the current audience longer on the platform. We had to offer a more personalized interface and implement unique features to bring the brand closer to a consumer.

01

Research

The research covered current and potential audiences of Hromadske.ua, Ukrainian and global media markets. According to the Factum Group Ukraine report, almost every fifth respondent from 18 to 65 years (17%) belongs to the potential audience of the media. Research showed the readers want to get personal settings and wider opportunities for the news sorting.

Gender

Age

Frequency of Use

Devices

02

Concept

Hromadske.ua has over 2.5 million unique readers every month with average session time nearly 1.5 minutes. So, the website needs to provide traffic to millions of users as well as to few of them. Our task was to create a modern media with simple navigation, clear and convenient administrative panel, and high speed of loading.

03

Modeling

As for the Ukrainian media market, most of the websites are written on WordPress without any trend technology in the front-end. Global media like BBC have more interesting technologies like Angular or React. After our research, we chose JavaScript-everywhere stack. Node.js has a better performance than Python or Ruby, and you don’t have to spend time on meta-programming like in Ruby and Ruby On Rails. Node.js is faster in one stream. As for Koa.js, it is minimalistic and modern and can be used for microservices. It is modular, and every next module can be connected as a separate package. It has other benefits, too: it is possible to describe the own middlewares, and the callback hell problem is solved by using Async/await.

Most of Ukrainian News Sites

WordPress

Most of the Global Media

Angular

React

Hromadske Tech Stack

Node.js

Why?High perfomance and speed in one stream

Koa.js

Why?Modern and minimalistic, can be used for microservices

React

Why?For development of Single-Page Application (SPA) features

Next.js

Why?To implement server-side rendering in React

04

Deployment & Delivery

We divided the platform into 3 main modules:
  • API
  • Admin Panel - tool for editors
  • User Interface
After conducting two sessions of beta testing with the real website visitors, we delivered the following features.

Convenient admin panel for journalists

We developed a сustom CMS for redactors that makes the process of news posting fast and easy. Features:
  • Ability to add video and pictures
  • Ability to customize the blocks and structure of the publications
  • Ability to plan and postpone publications
We developed a сustom CMS for redactors that makes the process of news posting fast and easy. Features:
  • Ability to add video and pictures
  • Ability to customize the blocks and structure of the publications
  • Ability to plan and postpone publications

Clear navigation for both visitors and search engines

We improved site's navigation and content organization. Features:
  • Instant search of publications
  • Custom sorting of publications by data and relevance
  • Automatic translation of the publications
We improved site's navigation and content organization. Features:
  • Instant search of publications
  • Custom sorting of publications by data and relevance
  • Automatic translation of the publications

Live TV Stream

We developed and integrated a custom video service that is distributing via Youtube, Smart TV, IPTV Player, and the primary Ukrainian streaming services.
We developed and integrated a custom video service that is distributing via Youtube, Smart TV, IPTV Player, and the primary Ukrainian streaming services.

Integrations with social networks

We simplified website's content promotion for journalists. Features:
  • Instant customization and SEO optimization of publications for sharing in social media
  • Integration of Facebook Instant Article
  • Integration of Google AMP framework framework
We simplified website's content promotion for journalists. Features:
  • Instant customization and SEO optimization of publications for sharing in social media
  • Integration of Facebook Instant Article
  • Integration of Google AMP framework framework

AutoScaling and DevOps Automation

We developed a responsive and fast high-load system using Auto Scaling on AWS to ensure the scalability and security of the solution and its flawless performance. We also used:
  • Memcached to offload database queries
  • Cloudflare CDN for caching static objects
  • DB performance optimization
We developed a responsive and fast high-load system using Auto Scaling on AWS to ensure the scalability and security of the solution and its flawless performance. We also used:
  • Memcached to offload database queries
  • Cloudflare CDN for caching static objects
  • DB performance optimization

Talk to our expertsand get off-charge services

A high-level review of requirements and any technical procedures you have.Advice on architecture and the UX side of your current or future business.Help with the R&D plan.

Schedule a Free Consultation

daniel

Technical Lead

serhii

UI/UX Design Lead

roman

Chief Technical Officer

A high-level review of requirements and any technical procedures you have.Advice on architecture and the UX side of your current or future business.Help with the R&D plan.
Schedule a Free Advisory Session

Outcomes

Created modern and fast media website

Speed up pages loading time, simplified navigation and integrated a lot of features to adjust visitors' news-reading experience

Decreased the time editors spend managing the website by 70%

Created simple, fast, flexible admin panel for editors and authors to publish their articles in no time and additional efforts

Boosted website key performance metrics by 50%

Increased user retention rates and the time visitors spend on the website and decreased bounce rate

Optimized load and performance and solved DevOps challenges

Cut server costs for AWS infrastructure and improved platform scalability and security

Testimonial

Artem Arutyunyan

Head of Digital at Hromadske.ua

With our Highload News Media project, we have reached our goals to increase analytics by rebuilding the infrastructure, boosting the performance of the website, and improving the news cloud panel for our journalists. Hromadske.ua is extremely thankful and satisfied with the costs spent since the results we gained are perfect. Ralabs team did the job in the best way possible to produce the desired outcome!

Contacts

artem@hromadske.ua+380 66 912 2292

Let’s See What We Can Do for You

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