Building an MVP of a memory-sharing platform for Miigen

Miigen - Library of Life is a web-based digital legacy platform designed to help people preserve and share life stories, memories, and personal experiences in multimedia formats. The platform enables users to document milestones, journeys, and reflections using text, images, and audio, ensuring these memories can be passed down across generations.

Beyond personal storytelling, Miigen also includes an advertising layer that allows individuals and businesses to reach location-specific audiences. From the outset, the platform needed to support multiple user groups with very different goals, while remaining simple enough for users of all ages and technical abilities.

Exline Labs partnered with Miigen from the idea stage to design and build an MVP that could validate the concept, support future growth, and deliver a seamless experience across all user types.

The challenge was not just building features. It was designing for diversity of use.

The platform needed to:

• Serve memory creators, memory consumers, and advertisers within a single system

• Remain intuitive for non-technical users

• Support multimedia content without overwhelming the interface

• Enable discovery through categories, search, and location

• Introduce advertising without disrupting the core storytelling experience

All of this had to be delivered as a scalable MVP that could evolve into a long-term SaaS product.

The UX approach focused on clarity, accessibility, and emotional ease.

We began with low-fidelity wireframes to map structure and user flows, ensuring the platform felt welcoming rather than complex. The interface was designed with a clean, modern layout and a consistent visual language across all sections.

Key UX decisions included:

• A simple text editor for writing and publishing memories

• Clear flows for uploading photos and audio clips

• Category-based organisation for personal stories

• Location tagging to support geographic discovery

• Separate, clearly defined interfaces for advertisers

A custom design system was introduced to maintain consistency, accessibility, and visual harmony across the platform. Multiple feedback cycles were incorporated to refine ad placements, filters, and content layouts.

Miigen was structured around three core user groups, each with distinct needs.

For memory creators:

• Writing and publishing life stories through a user-friendly editor

• Uploading photos and audio clips

• Organising memories by categories such as family or travel

• Tagging memories with country, state, and city

• Secure cloud-based storage of all content

For public users:

• Browsing a global feed of stories

• Filtering content by category and location

• Searching for specific topics or experiences

For advertisers:

• Creating image- and text-based advertisements

• Selecting geographic locations for precise targeting

• Managing campaigns through a simple dashboard

This structure ensured each audience could achieve their goals without unnecessary complexity.

The MVP was developed as a scalable web application with performance, security, and future extensibility in mind.

Frontend

• React for building highly interactive user interfaces

• Inertia.js to deliver an app-like experience while remaining web-based

• Tailwind CSS for clean, responsive layouts across all screen sizes

This combination allowed the platform to feel fast, intuitive, and mobile-friendly, even for first-time users.

Backend

• Laravel was used as the core backend framework, providing a secure and scalable foundation for the SaaS platform

• Its structured architecture enabled rapid development and smooth MVP delivery

Data Management

• MySQL handled structured data such as user profiles, memories, categories, and locations

Media Storage

• Amazon S3 was used for storing photos and audio files securely, with fast load times and scalability as the platform grows

Authentication & Security

• Session-based authentication for users

• Laravel Sanctum for secure API access and future mobile integration readiness

Exline Labs delivered a secure, scalable, and user-friendly MVP that brought Miigen’s vision to life.

The platform successfully supports:

• Personal storytelling in multimedia formats

• Discovery through categories, search, and location

• Advertising with precise geographic targeting

Despite serving a broad and non-technical user base, the MVP remains easy to use and visually clear. The product is now positioned as a strong foundation for future growth, feature expansion, and global adoption.