Work 02 / Web app

Exanbull

Every movie gets a DNA. Tell it what you actually liked and it finds the next one, for you or for a whole group swiping one deck together.

For
34 Software, first-party product
Status
Live
Type
Web app
Year
2026
Role
Product design, Web engineering, Recommendation logic, Release
Stack
TypeScript, a Vite-built single-page app installed as a PWA
Open Graph share cards and a manifest for add-to-home-screen on iOS and Android
Exanbull2400 by 1500
Exanbull2400 by 1500

The problem.

Picking a film for a group is a negotiation that ends with the loudest person's choice. Ratings and genres do not describe why someone liked a film, so recommendations built on them miss. Exanbull had to describe taste well enough to build one deck a whole group could swipe, and make agreement visible.

Constraints

  • It had to work as a link pasted into a group chat, with no install and no account to get started.
  • A night had to be decided in minutes, not browsed for an hour.
  • One codebase for phones and laptops, installable on both.

The approach.

Exanbull is a client-rendered progressive web app that can be added to a home screen on iOS and Android without an app store. Each film carries a profile of what people liked about it, and each person's taste is built from what they say they liked rather than from stars. A group night is a link; everyone swipes the same taste-built deck, and the overlap decides the film.

  1. A night is a link

    Sharing is the growth loop, so a night has to unfurl as a card in a chat and open straight into the deck. That ruled out anything that needed an install or a login first.

  2. An installable web app instead of a store app

    One codebase reaches every phone and laptop, ships the moment it is deployed, and still behaves like an app on the home screen. The trade is fewer native hooks, which the product does not need.

  3. Taste, not ratings

    People are asked what they liked about a film, not how many stars it deserves. That is the data the deck is built from, and it is why the overlap between two people means something.

Role

  • Product definition and interface design
  • Web application and the taste model behind the deck
  • Sharing, group sessions, and release

Start a project

Ready when you are.

Tell us what you have: the goal, the current state, and what feels blocked. A clear brief helps, but it is not required.

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