PROJECT SNAPSHOT
Graduation Album Creation System
OVERVIEW
Project Overview
Sonix designed and built a cloud-native graduation album platform for a Japanese education services company, enabling photo studios and school administrators to upload event photos at scale while AI-powered facial recognition automatically curates each student’s personalised photo collection — allowing families to browse, select, and purchase prints entirely online, with zero manual sorting required.
WHY SONIX
Why the Client Chose Sonix
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🤖 AI & AWS Serverless Expertise Deep hands-on experience with AWS Rekognition, Lambda, and DynamoDB gave the client confidence that complex AI-driven requirements would be delivered reliably and cost-effectively. |
🔄 Labo Model Flexibility The client needed a long-term development partner, not a one-off vendor. Sonix’s Labo engagement model provided a dedicated team that grows with the product through continuous releases and maintenance cycles. |
🎓 Education Industry Knowledge Sonix’s familiarity with the Japanese education services sector — school schedules, print fulfilment workflows, and parent-facing UX expectations — shortened the discovery phase significantly. |
CHALLENGE
The Problem to Solve
Traditional school graduation photo services in Japan are labour-intensive: photographers and studios manually review hundreds of images to identify individual students, staff sort and package orders by hand, and parents visit physical shops or wait for printed catalogues to arrive before placing their orders. The process is slow, error-prone, and scales poorly as school sizes grow.
The client wanted to move the entire workflow online — from photo upload to print delivery — while introducing AI-driven facial recognition to automatically identify and pre-select each student’s photos. The key challenge was building a system that could handle large photo datasets reliably, match faces accurately even in crowded group shots, and process payments and print orders securely at scale.
Additionally, the system needed to be intuitive enough for parents with varying levels of digital literacy, and maintainable enough for an ongoing Labo engagement as new features are continuously added.
OUR APPROACH
How We Tackled It
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Serverless-First Architecture on AWS We designed the platform around a fully serverless AWS stack — Lambda for compute, DynamoDB for real-time data, S3 for media storage, and AppSync/GraphQL for the API layer — eliminating fixed infrastructure costs and enabling the system to scale automatically during seasonal demand peaks such as graduation season. |
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2
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AI Facial Recognition Integration AWS Rekognition was integrated into the upload pipeline so that, upon receiving a student’s profile photo, the system builds a facial index and automatically scans every uploaded school photo to find and surface matches. This eliminates manual sorting and provides parents with a personalised pre-selected album the moment they log in. |
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End-to-End Order & Fulfilment Flow A complete commerce workflow was built: online payment processing, print data generation in the format required by partner printing companies, push notifications to keep parents informed at every order stage, and a billing management dashboard for the client’s operations team — turning a manual process into a fully digital, end-to-end fulfilment pipeline. |
SOLUTION
What We Built
Sonix delivered a cloud-native graduation album platform built entirely on AWS serverless services. The management portal allows photo studios and school administrators to upload batches of event images, which are automatically indexed and processed. On the consumer side, parents register online and upload a single profile photo; AWS Rekognition then builds their facial index and matches it across every uploaded image — presenting them with a curated, personalised gallery within minutes.
Built on Next.js with GraphQL (AWS AppSync) and DynamoDB, the platform offers real-time data updates, secure payment processing, push notification delivery, and automated print data generation sent directly to fulfillment partners. The engagement operates as a long-term Labo project, with Sonix continuously adding features and maintaining the system alongside the client as the product expands across more schools and regions.
TECHNOLOGIES USED
Tech Stack
RESULT
Outcomes & Impact
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Auto AI-Powered Photo Curation Facial recognition automatically identifies and pre-selects each student’s photos across hundreds of uploaded images — no manual sorting required. |
100% Online Order & Payment Flow The entire purchase-to-print workflow moved online, eliminating paper catalogues and physical shop visits for families. |
Labo Ongoing Partnership The engagement transitioned into a continuous Labo model, with Sonix maintaining and expanding the platform as the client scales to more schools. |
KEY FEATURES
Feature Breakdown
Client Testimonial
Sonix delivered a powerful inspection data platform that transformed how we collect and manage field information. Our inspectors can now capture data in real time, reduce manual paperwork, and ensure accuracy across all projects. The centralized dashboard gives us full visibility, helping us make faster and more confident decisions.
Representative
A Japanese Education Services — Japan
Sonix — Your success is our happiness.
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