Web Apps

Custom web applications built with a focus on performance, user experience, and scalability.

 

Company

CoralHub is a niche marketplace created for the marine aquarium community, connecting hobbyists and sellers through a dedicated platform for buying and selling corals, equipment, aquariums, and other reef-keeping products.

Overview

This platform connects hobbyists and sellers in a dedicated space where users can discover, buy, and manage products such as corals, equipment, lighting, and aquariums.

Built with React, Flask, PostgreSQL, and Stripe, CoralHub streamlines the buying experience while providing sellers with tools to manage their inventory, orders, and customer interactions.

The Challenge

The marine aquarium industry relies heavily on fragmented sales channels, including social media groups, forums, and general-purpose marketplaces that often lack trust, organization, and specialized features.

Users struggle to find products efficiently, communicate with sellers, and complete secure transactions, while sellers face challenges managing inventory, orders, and customer relationships across multiple platforms.

The challenge was to create a centralized, user-friendly platform tailored to the specific needs of this niche community.

The Goal

The goal was to design and develop a scalable marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process for marine aquarium enthusiasts.

Key objectives included:

  • Creating a seamless shopping experience with secure payments.
  • Providing role-based dashboards for buyers, sellers, and administrators.
  • Improving product discoverability through search, categories, and favorites.
  • Enabling direct communication between users.
  • Building a responsive and intuitive interface accessible across devices.

The Strategy

To address both user and business needs, the project focused on three core pillars: usability, trust, and scalability.

The strategy included:

  • Designing clear user flows for browsing, purchasing, and managing products.
  • Implementing role-based access to deliver personalized experiences.
  • Structuring the backend around a RESTful architecture to support future growth.
  • Prioritizing responsive design to ensure a consistent experience across devices.
  • Integrating secure authentication and payment systems to build user confidence.
  • Leveraging user feedback and agile development practices to iterate quickly.

The Solution

CoralHub was developed as a full-stack application using React and Bootstrap on the frontend, with Flask, SQLAlchemy, PostgreSQL, and JWT authentication powering the backend.

Key features include:

  • Secure user authentication and role-based access control.
  • Product management dashboards for sellers and administrators.
  • Advanced product search, filtering, and favorites functionality.
  • Integrated messaging system for direct buyer-seller communication.
  • Stripe-powered checkout and order management.
  • Cloud-based image uploads through Cloudinary.
  • Responsive design optimized for desktop and mobile devices

 

The result is a specialized marketplace that transforms a fragmented buying experience into a centralized, secure, and user-focused platform for the marine aquarium community.

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Hire me!

Open to opportunities.

I combine strategy, design, and development to build accessible, user-centered digital experiences that solve real problems.

+1(786) 868 8151

nahyah.lop@gmail.com

Ana M. Lopez Hidalgo

Miami, Florida