Orbit

First-hand photos pinned to place

In 2016, two UCL students — the founders-to-be of CodeLeap — set out to answer fake news with a map: first-hand photos, each pinned to the spot it was taken. Orbit reached a working alpha on iOS and Android with a deployed AWS backend, and never publicly launched. We include it because the product thinking and the engineering still stand.

What we did CodeLeap's founders built the native iOS and Android apps and the AWS backend behind them, including a request feature letting users draw an area on the map and ask nearby contributors for photos, and a ranking algorithm weighting recency, votes and comments.

Orbit started as a university project at UCL in late 2016, built by the two founders who would go on to start CodeLeap. The idea was a global map where users upload photos pinned to where they were taken, so anyone can browse an area for current, first-hand imagery, or draw an area and request a picture from someone nearby. Through 2017 the founders designed and built the whole product themselves and put a pre-alpha in the hands of ten real users.

Product features

A map of first-hand photos

Every photo is pinned to the exact place it was taken, so browsing the map shows an area as it actually looks right now. A demonstration or a crowded park comes from someone standing there rather than from a stock feed.
Request a picture

Draw an area on the map and ask people nearby for a photo of it. Instead of searching for coverage that may not exist, you ask the crowd directly, and someone on the spot answers with the real view.
Prioritisation algorithm

A ranking algorithm the founders treated as the product's core intellectual property, weighing recency, votes and comments to decide which posts surface first. The map led with what was current and useful rather than with whatever was loudest.
Working alpha on both platforms

Native-feel iOS and Android apps backed by a deployed, scalable AWS backend, designed, built and carried to a working alpha on real devices by two people, and tested pre-alpha with ten real users.

Challenge

The product only works if the photos are current and genuinely from the place they claim. That puts the weight on two things at once: a contribution loop active enough that an area actually has recent coverage, and a ranking system good enough that what surfaces first is worth looking at. The second constraint was the team. Two students designed and built a complete two-platform product with a scalable backend and a ranking algorithm, which meant every architectural decision had to be one two people could carry to a working alpha.

Solution

The founders built the native iOS and Android apps, the AWS backend behind them, and the prioritisation algorithm that decides what the map leads with. The request feature closed the loop between wanting to see a place and someone nearby being asked to show it. Orbit never launched, with no beta, no App Store release and no user numbers to quote. What it shows is where CodeLeap's founders started: designing and engineering a complete two-platform product themselves, from map interface to backend to ranking algorithm, years before doing it for clients.