Case Study: GraphCMS and Cleveland Clinic

GraphCMS provides the power and flexibility to service a wide array of applications while still being intuitive enough for anyone to maintain.

Nien LamCo-Founder at Line Break

Cleveland Clinic, a world-famous academic medical institution, is home to world-class art and architecture which can be experienced with its newly released AR+ mobile app. The application is developed by the New York studio Line Break and powered by GraphCMS. It enables users to explore the art and architecture of nine Cleveland Clinic facilities across the globe by accessing information both on-site and remotely.

AR+ features Augmented Reality technology plus everything you need to:

1. Interact with the environment through augmented reality when on-site at specific locations.
2. Discover architectural facts and features that make each location a healing space.
3. Learn about selected artists and artworks in Cleveland Clinic’s contemporary art collection.
4. Engage with buildings and artists through video and audio recordings.
5. Participate in Cleveland Clinic events and performances by following updated listings.
6. Find patient and visitor amenities like cafes, boutiques and special resources.

The Organizations

The Cleveland Clinic is an American academic medical organization with 10 regional hospitals and 19 family health centers in the U.S., Canada and the U.A.E. and employs over 52,000 people. Cleveland Clinic is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the United States and it became the first American healthcare provider to become a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact and the second in the world.

Line Break Studio is a New York City based design and development studio. Their websites, games, apps and installations are a blend of art & design, engineering & architecture, coding & creativity.

Why GraphCMS

When Line Break started qualifying a Content Management Solution for the project, they looked at some of the hosted solutions which were too big and expensive (for example IBM Websphere). Homebrew solutions like combining a MongoDB-based backend with a React frontend are prohibitively expensive to maintain. Many of the newer CMS companies were simply not ready to go to market.

GraphCMS hits the sweet spot. The software has the simplicity and intuitive design which the established solutions miss. The pricing is flexible and the company proves to provide high-quality support. The software has become a daily flexible tool for both the Developers and the Content Editors of Line Break and Cleveland Clinic.

In the past, Line Break built RESTful APIs for its clients. Building the AR+ App was the first time that Line Break worked with GraphQL and they benefited from its advantages immediately. The syntax is concise and logical; you can set up powerful APIs in minutes. Most importantly, you know what you are doing: when your first code draft of the API does not function, you understand why that is, and you can easily fix it.

After the success of AR+, Line Break hopes to work with GraphQL and GraphCMS for future projects.

What Mattered most to Cleveland Clinic when choosing GraphCMS?

• The software has the simplicity and intuitive design which the established solutions miss.
• The pricing is flexible and the company proves to provide high-quality support.
• GraphQL's syntax is concise and logical; you can set up powerful APIs in minutes.