Why we started Laayo in Birtamod and Damak
Most delivery apps start in the capital and work their way out. We went the other way. What we have learned building food delivery for smaller towns in eastern Nepal, and where we go next.
Stories from the people building Laayo
Engineering, product and design notes from a delivery app made for smaller towns.
Laayo's tech stack, part five: seeing what happens
The dashboards, metrics and crash reports we use to know how Laayo is doing right now, and what is planned next for the backend.
Search that understands "chicken momo" and "chiken momo"
People type the way they talk. We rebuilt Laayo search so briyani, chaumin and panir find the dishes you meant, without letting the noise in.
Laayo's tech stack, part four: going native
Why we rebuilt the customer app in Swift and Kotlin, how we moved screen by screen without logging anyone out, and why the rider and partner apps stay on Flutter for now.
Series
Laayo's tech stack
A five part tour of the systems behind Laayo, from the servers up to the apps in your hand.
Latest
One restaurant card, everywhere
Home, search, categories, offers and collections each had their own restaurant card. We replaced all of them with the one people liked best, and learned a lot about consistency on the way.
Rating your food should take ten seconds
Ratings help you pick a good meal and help kitchens get better, but only if people leave them. Here is how we made rating an order quick, kind and impossible to get stuck in.
Motion that feels native, and stays cheap
How we build transitions that follow your finger, festival skins that do not drain the battery, and floating buttons that let the photo behind them shine through.
Making the Laayo app open fast, even the very first time
We timed a brand new install from tap to home screen and found a chain of small waits. Here is how we cut them, from GPS and duplicate calls to images and one bundled home request.
Loading without lying
A loading screen makes promises. Here are the rules we use so that what you see while Laayo loads is never wrong, never jumpy and never thrown away for no reason.
Dashain on Laayo, kites, dakshina and feast mode
Dashain is the biggest festival of the year in our towns. This year the Laayo app dressed up for it, with kites you can fly, dakshina envelopes on your orders and a switch that turns it all off when the festival ends.
Open, closed, or somewhere in between
"Is this restaurant open?" sounds like a yes or no question. In a delivery app it has at least five answers. These are the rules we use so every screen gives the same, honest one.
Why we ask you to type a cancel reason
A list of preset reasons is easy to tap and almost useless to read. We replaced it with one honest question, and a gentle check that keeps "aaaa" out.
Getting paid, and knowing you have been paid
For a restaurant, a payout is only real when the money is in the account and the owner knows why it is that amount. How we tell partners about every payout by text, email, a clear statement and a quick phone call.
Browse by section
Engineering
16 articlesHow we build the systems that move food, riders and payments across town.
- Laayo's tech stack, part five: seeing what happens
- Search that understands "chicken momo" and "chiken momo"
- Laayo's tech stack, part four: going native
Product
7 articlesThe thinking behind the features you tap every day.
- Rating your food should take ten seconds
- Why we ask you to type a cancel reason
- Refunds you can follow, and invoices you can keep
Company
7 articlesOur towns, our riders, our partners and where we are going next.
- Dashain on Laayo, kites, dakshina and feast mode
- Getting paid, and knowing you have been paid
- Why we started Laayo in Birtamod and Damak