A cross-platform social discovery and e-commerce ecosystem allowing homeowners to share renovation journeys and shop tagged interior products.
What we did
- End-to-end mobile app development for iOS and Android
- Full-stack web development and responsive UI design
- Implementation of an interactive product tagging system
- Custom ExpressionEngine CMS architecture for multi-platform data delivery
- Creation of "Before and After" image comparison tools
- Strategic e-commerce integration for affiliate and direct purchasing
About the project
Housetagz is a digital lifestyle community designed to celebrate creativity in home renovation and interior design. Launched to provide a dedicated space for homeowners, renovators, and DIY enthusiasts, the platform allows users to browse high-quality before-and-after photography of real-world transformations. The core premise is simple yet powerful: inspiration meets action. By allowing users to upload their own projects and tag the specific products used, Housetagz bridges the gap between seeing a beautiful room and owning the items within it.
Tinderhouse was commissioned to build the entire digital infrastructure, which included a feature-rich website and dedicated mobile applications. The project required a delicate balance between social networking features and a robust e-commerce engine. As a lifestyle-focused product, the visual experience had to be flawless, ensuring that high-resolution imagery was delivered quickly across all devices. Our team worked to ensure that the transition from a web-based browsing session to an on-the-go mobile experience was seamless and intuitive.
Recognising the complexity of building a dual-platform community from scratch, we used a focused minimum viable product strategy during the initial rollout. This allowed us to launch the core image sharing and social interaction features early, gathering user feedback on the "tagging" experience before fully scaling the e-commerce library. This MVP approach ensured the platform was stable and user-friendly from the outset, providing a solid foundation for the global community that Housetagz aimed to attract.
The Challenge
The home renovation market is highly visual, but fragmented. Housetagz needed to solve several technical and user experience hurdles to stand out in the crowded lifestyle sector:
- Creating a fluid way for users to compare "before" and "after" states without cluttering the user interface.
- Developing a precise product tagging mechanism that worked consistently across a web browser and a mobile touch-screen.
- Ensuring large galleries of high-resolution images loaded rapidly without excessive data consumption for mobile users.
- Managing the synchronisation of social content and e-commerce data between a website and two separate mobile operating systems.
- Providing a CMS that allowed administrators to manage thousands of user-generated tags and verify product links.
- Building a community-driven environment that encouraged high-quality uploads while maintaining a simple, accessible onboarding process for new users.
Our Solution
Integrated Cross-Platform Architecture
We built a unified backend using ExpressionEngine to serve as the single source of truth for the entire ecosystem. As specialist Expression Engine developers, we customised the CMS to handle the complex relationships between users, renovation projects, and tagged products. This allowed us to push updates to the website and the mobile apps simultaneously, ensuring that a project uploaded on a phone was immediately visible on the web portal. This architecture provides the scalability required for a global social platform while keeping administrative overhead low.
Interactive Product Tagging and E-commerce
The primary differentiator for Housetagz is the ability to shop the look. We developed a custom tagging tool that allows users to place interactive "tags" directly onto their photos. Clicking a tag reveals product details, pricing, and a direct purchase link. We treated this with the same rigour as our e-commerce app development projects, ensuring the checkout path was clear and the data was accurate. This feature turns every user upload into a shoppable storefront, providing a unique value proposition for both users and retail partners.
Immersive Before and After UX
To highlight the transformative nature of home renovation, we created a bespoke image comparison tool. Users can upload high-resolution "before" and "after" photos, which the platform then renders using a swipe-slider or a toggle view. This required careful web development to ensure the images remained perfectly aligned across different screen aspect ratios. The result is a satisfying, tactile experience that encourages users to spend more time exploring the creativity of the community.
Native Mobile Performance
While the website provides a comprehensive browsing experience, the mobile apps for iOS and Android were designed for high-frequency interaction. We prioritised the camera integration, making it effortless for users to snap photos of their ongoing projects and upload them instantly. This focus on property app development ensured that the apps felt like a natural tool for the homeowner, allowing them to document their journey as it happens. The apps utilise local caching to ensure that browsing through the inspiration feed feels instantaneous.
The Results
Since the platform’s major launch and subsequent iterations through 2019, Housetagz has established itself as a vibrant hub for the renovation community.
Global User Base: The platform successfully attracted users from across the world, creating a diverse library of home transformation styles.
High Engagement with Tagging: Over 60% of top-performing projects include multiple product tags, driving significant traffic to retail partners.
Seamless Multi-Platform Sync: The ExpressionEngine backend maintained 100% data parity between the web and mobile apps, providing a consistent user experience.
Scalable Asset Management: The infrastructure now hosts thousands of high-resolution images with low latency delivery globally.
Successful Brand Collaborations: The professional nature of the product tagging tool has led to partnerships with boutique interior brands looking for organic social exposure.
Technical Highlights
CMS Framework: Bespoke ExpressionEngine implementation for cross-platform data management.
Mobile Tech: Native-focused iOS and Android builds for high-performance image handling.
Backend Logic: PHP and MySQL architecture designed for complex social and relational data.
Interactive Tools: Custom JavaScript and Swift/Kotlin image sliders and tagging engines.
Infrastructure: CDN-backed image delivery to ensure rapid global load times.
Social Features: Real-time commenting, liking, and user-to-user sharing notifications.
Ready to Build Your Social Discovery Platform?
Whether you are looking for an MVP development plan to test a new lifestyle concept or need a complex e-commerce app, our Kent-based team has the expertise to help. We specialise in building high-performance digital tools that connect people and products.