Siwak
A Kurdish-first mobile app for religious service requests, prayer times, qibla and a photo-only community feed - iOS and Android.
Client
Bashir Burhan Mahmoud
Type
App
Timeline
4 Weeks
Deliverables
iOS and Android app published on the App Store and Google Play, admin panel, full UI design, source code handover.
THE CHALLENGE
Requests arrived by phone call and WhatsApp. A customer would send passport and visa photos into a chat thread, and those images then lived in someone's phone gallery, with no proper way to delete them and no control over who could see them. There was no list of who had asked for what or which requests were still open - that sat in the head of whoever answered the phone. Payment was arranged separately every time. And the audience the business already had, people who open their phone several times a day to check a prayer time, had no reason to open anything belonging to the business.
THE SOLUTION
A Kurdish-first app for iPhone and Android - the whole interface right to left in Sorani, with Arabic and English, in a light and a dark theme. The request happens inside the app: the customer fills the form, attaches passport and visa images, and pays with QiCard, FIB or FastPay. Those documents go into private storage instead of a chat thread; staff open them through temporary links from the admin panel, and they are deleted once the request is finished. Prayer times for the user's own location with adhan notifications and a choice of reciter, and a qibla compass. A photo-only feed where signed-in users post and like, one like per person per photo and seven posts a week, enforced on the server rather than in the app, with reporting and removal tools. An admin panel to work through requests, manage content, and see what is still open.
THE RESULT
Requests arrive in one place with the documents attached, instead of in a chat thread with the photos in someone's gallery. Sensitive documents left the phone: they sit in private storage, open through links that expire, and are deleted when the request closes. Payment happens at the moment of the request instead of in a separate conversation. And the business now has a reason to be on the customer's phone every day, through prayer times, not only when the customer needs something.