The System and Software Architecture of Back-End Applications for the Short-Term Rental of Electric Scooters – Exhibition of an Exemplarily Implemented Back-End Application
The market for the short-term rental of electric scooters is currently rapidly growing in many parts of the world. As other short-term rental markets, mainly in form of the concept of car sharing, and modern services in general have already shown, a mobile or web-based application is the absolute tool for the functioning of such a service.
The main aspect of success for such a system is the magic behind the scenes that no customer sees. The users just see the electric scooter as the product and want to be able to ride one on demand by the push of a button. The ease of use for the customers and their satisfaction are the main facets to be considered by the provider of such a service.
Oftentimes, this involves two foundational web-based components: A front-end and a back-end. On the one hand, the front-end provides the user interface of the product – the façade of the whole. It is the component the customer interacts with but more importantly it is what the users identify the product with. On the other hand, the back-end is the brain of the software product, it dictates what the front-end should do. Meanwhile, it does not determine what it looks like. If the front-end is unusable, the back-end will never be able to fix that as the front-end becomes the mental representation of the whole product for the customers. If the back-end behaves sluggish or is prone to errors, the front-end will not be able to save much by the same token. In the end, both form a synergy with each other.
This thesis exhibits the back-end of such an application while focussing on the system and software architecture of it. This includes the functionalities that are mandatory and the question on how the product will come together – from ideas and drafts to written source code.
You can download the full thesis from GitHub!