Clearly Innovative, a company that designs web and mobile apps as well as websites for clients in the District and in NYC, has launched a second app for
D.C. Health Link, the online health insurance marketplace for D.C. individuals, families and small businesses. The latest app, which launched Monday, Aug. 11, is called
D.C. Small Biz Market. It educates small business owners about existing health care options based on employee size and puts them in touch with brokers to help them secure coverage.
The
first app Clearly Innovative built for D.C. Health Link, which launched in February, was geared for individuals and families. It educates consumers about their choices in the D.C. healthcare exchange. "D.C. Health approached us at the beginning of the summer about creating a second app," says Lis Warren, lead designer for Clearly Innovative and product lead for the apps. "We'd always planned for a second phase. We just waited a little before rolling it out."
Warren says that potentially, the company could launch an in-app live chat feature, "similar to getting to talk to customer service representatives on websites to directly ask questions and get answers."
The apps are built on the
Appcelerator platform, a hybrid app-building environment which Clearly Innovative founder Aaron Saunders says "allows for the speed and flexibility of Javascript but the performance and user interface of native apps." Saunders is writing a
book, to be published in October, about the subject.
Clearly Innovative launched three and a half years ago and currently employs 15 people full-time in the D.C. and NYC offices. The company counts the Queens Library and
Glam & Go among its clients in New York. Besides D.C. Health in the District, Clearly Innovative is "making e-commerce and mobile health plays" in D.C., says Saunders, and, though he won't name names of clients for upcoming projects, one is in sports and fitness, managing sports teams for high school athletics; another involves a home remodeling company; a third is a company "like Fiverr or TaskRabbit."
With more work than they have staff for, Clearly Innovative is hiring developers for both the D.C. and NYC offices.