CodeScreen

As a software developer who had taken many coding tests for job interviews, Dave Cervi was unsatisfied with the skewed ways the testing platforms measured ability and knowledge -- so he decided to build his own testing platform, CodeScreen.

Within a year, he launched a straightforward testing module that replicates real-life development scenarios, providing employers with a more accurate representation of how a candidate will perform on the job in the day-to-day (instead of looking for adherence to obscure computer science theories).

The challenge

Dave wanted to keep CodeScreen simple, but as more competition came on the market, he also wanted to be diligent about making the platform as user-friendly as possible. After winning some customers and watching his business grow, he realized that a notification system would help round out the product. Because it wasn’t a core part of his product and would require a substantial amount of time and money, building a notification system had been living on his backlog list for some time -- and he found himself looking for a fast and affordable way to pull it off.

The Approach

Dave learned about MagicBell through a blog entry authored by founder Hana Mohan and was impressed with the simplicity of the product. Realizing the potential use case for MagicBell, Dave started working with MagicBell’s team of engineers to customize what he wanted notifications to do for CodeScreen users. Within 24 hours, he had a complete notification system up and running.

“Customers just went into the CodeScreen platform one day and they’d see a little bell on their toolbar,” Dave said. “It was very straightforward and intuitive -- it didn’t require any explanation or onboarding.”

Aside from helping CodeScreen users stay on top of candidate testing, Dave realized he could use MagicBell’s embeddable notification system as a webhook mechanism. With the alerts, he triggered logic on the front end to remove data from the cache, which then triggered an additional loading spinner in the UI besides the candidate's impending results in the UI.

The Solution

CodeScreen uses MagicBell for four main alerts to make the candidate testing process easier for employers: when a candidate has passed, when a candidate has failed, when test results are being processed, and when a testing session has expired.

The links within the notifications let users immediately take action; the pass/fail notification includes a link to view results, while the "expired" notification includes a link to re-send the test.

"It definitely adds more of a real-time feeling to CodeScreen," Dave said.

The Results

Dave is preparing to raise a round of funding in six months, so he's making sure CodeScreen is in a good place. MagicBell's easy-to-integrate notification system has helped not only to move the testing process along effortlessly but to grow user engagement and educate customers about new features.

"Once a customer is inside the app, that’s prime real estate because they're more likely to click on it," Dave said. "I am planning to use MagicBell notifications for announcements, blog posts, new feature alerts, and other important information that I don’t want getting lost in someone's email inbox."

MagicBell is a perfect addition to collaborative and communication apps, enabling multi-channel notifications, and ensuring users stay on top of their work across browser, mobile, or in-app.

Unlock the full potential of your app with a perfect notification stack.

Here are a few resources that can help you get started:

• React notifications library
• More customer stories