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Web apps and MVPs, built to be used.

The smallest thing that answers the real question. Designed first, built in the open, handed over properly.

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What this is

Web app and MVP development from Belfast and Moira, Northern Ireland. We design and build small, focused web applications for startups testing an idea, businesses replacing a spreadsheet, and charities putting a tool in the hands of the people they support.

Not everything is a Shopify store. Over the years Invisible Building has built a multilingual housing-repair tool for refugee families, a mental-wellbeing web app for teenagers with AWARE, a swipe-based wedding-supplier matcher, an Irish-language café finder, and a private client portal for our own studio. The common thread is the approach: build the smallest thing that answers the real question, put it in front of real people, then decide what’s next.

Selected work

A tool for a charity, a hackathon prototype, and an MVP built to test a business idea fast.

What we build

Six kinds of small product, all built the same way: design first, boring technology, handed over properly.

  1. MVPs for startups

    A working product you can put in front of users and investors in weeks, not months. We help you decide what to leave out. That is most of the job.

  2. Internal tools

    The spreadsheet that runs your business, turned into something with logins, validation and a proper database. Booking systems, job boards, client portals, dashboards.

  3. Tools for charities & communities

    Mobile-first web apps that work on any phone without an app store, designed with the people who will use them. See FixIT and Take 5.

  4. Prototypes & no-code

    Clickable prototypes and no-code builds when the goal is to learn fast and cheap before writing custom code.

  5. Shopify apps & integrations

    Custom functionality for Shopify stores when an off-the-shelf app doesn’t fit: product builders, subscription flows, automation and Admin API tooling.

  6. AI-assisted features

    Practical, scoped uses of AI inside your product, with a human in the loop: content generation, classification, search, summarisation.

How we work

Four stages, no surprises.

  1. Discovery. A free first conversation, then a short scoping exercise: who is this for, what is the one job it must do, what does success look like. Output: a one-page brief and a realistic estimate.
  2. Design first. Wireframes and a clickable prototype before any build, so the people who’ll use it can react to something real. Read about our approach in mapping user journeys.
  3. Build in the open. Short cycles, a staging link you can share, and a private project portal where you see progress, decisions and files in one place.
  4. Launch and hand over. Documentation, hosting sorted, and a plan for who maintains it. The day after launch is where most small products fail.
How we keep it affordable

An MVP that does one thing well beats a platform that half-does five.

We use boring, well-supported technology by default: modern JavaScript, plain databases, and hosting that costs pounds a month rather than hundreds. We avoid frameworks and services that need a specialist to keep running. And we scope ruthlessly.

Building for a charity or community organisation? See our digital consultancy for charities and the rest of our Tech for Good work.

Questions

Asked often.

Web app or native app?

Almost always a web app to start. It works on every phone, doesn’t need app-store approval, is cheaper to build and maintain, and can be “installed” to a home screen. If you genuinely need native features later, you’ll know by then.

How much does an MVP cost?

It depends entirely on scope, which is why we scope first. We price fixed for a defined MVP, and you’ll have the number before we start. Project deposits and milestone payments are handled through the store.

Can you work with our existing developer or team?

Yes. We regularly design and prototype for teams who build in-house, and we hand over clean, documented code when we do build.

Do you offer ongoing support after launch?

Yes, through a retainer or our growth partnership model. Or we set you up to run it yourself; the choice is yours.

Written along the way, as it happened. Nothing tidied up afterwards.

All posts tagged Tech for Good

Have an idea that needs a working version?

Bring the idea. We will help you decide what to leave out, give you a fixed price for what is left, and get it in front of real people fast.

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