Ofellio
An event-discovery platform unifying literary gatherings, author talks, and book clubs into a location-aware feed.
Case study by Talha Amir · AI Agent & Full-Stack Engineer
Discuss a similar project →- Ofellio · ofellio.com
- Full-Stack Engineer
- Ongoing
Overview
Ofellio is a curated event-discovery platform tailored to book lovers, independent bookstores, and literary communities. Built a calm, editorial-style React application powered by a Node.js and Express API, allowing readers to discover local book signings, poetry readings, and discussions via an intelligent location-aware feed.
The Problem
Literary gatherings and book club events were scattered across individual bookstore social accounts, newsletters, and local bulletin boards with no central, searchable hub. Readers struggled to discover what was happening in their city, and organizers lacked an easy distribution channel.
- ▸Events lived in fragmented silos across various social platforms.
- ▸Existing event portals felt cluttered, noisy, and unsuited for calm literary discovery.
- ▸Organizers had no streamlined submission and moderation process.
The Solution
Built a calm, content-forward web platform where readers browse curated events filterable by city, date, format (in-person or virtual), and genre. A lightweight submission flow enables bookstores and event organizers to publish upcoming dates easily.
- ✓Location-aware discovery prioritizing events near the reader's city.
- ✓Calm editorial layout emphasizing typography and imagery over noisy ads.
- ✓Progressive faceted filtering by genre, date, and attendance format.
- ✓Organized organizer onboarding and event moderation pipeline.
Architecture
Geospatial-aware discovery backend serving a responsive, typography-driven frontend.
Editorial Frontend
React application with Tailwind CSS, progressive search filters, and calendar bookmarking.
API Service Layer
Node.js and Express REST API handling location matching, event indexing, and submission moderation.
Data Layer
MongoDB database with geospatial 2dsphere indexes for proximity-based event querying.
Key Features
Location-Aware Feed
Detects user city context and orders literary events chronologically and geographically.
Progressive Filter System
Instant filter tags for book clubs, author signings, workshops, and virtual webinars.
Organizer Submission Flow
Minimal-friction form allowing independent bookshops to publish upcoming events in under 2 minutes.
Technology Stack
Full-Stack Engineer
Designed and engineered the full platform architecture — frontend interface, Node/Express API, and MongoDB data models.
- ▪Built the editorial-inspired React frontend and filter interactions.
- ▪Implemented MongoDB geospatial indexing and proximity search endpoints.
- ▪Engineered the organizer submission flow and administrative moderation queue.
Product UI
Technical Challenges
Timezone & Multi-Day Date Handling
Challenge: Events spanned multiple time zones, recurring weekly book clubs, and multi-day literary festivals.
Solution: Standardized all event schedules to UTC timestamp intervals on the backend with client-side localization, preventing date-shift display bugs.
Outcome
Unified scattered bookstore calendars into a cohesive discovery feed, giving readers a single calm destination for local literary events.
- ✓Shipped an image-forward discovery experience with sub-second filter updates.
- ✓Built a reliable geospatial search engine supporting city-level discovery.
- ✓Created an extensible architecture that easily scales to new cities by configuration.
- One Feed
- Scattered events unified
- Location
- Proximity-aware discovery
- Editorial
- Calm, typography-first UX
