Client Portal That Feels Like an App: PWA, Bottom Nav, and Two Manifests

Bizee client portal PWA and bottom navigation cover

Part of Building Bizee — Technical Notes. See also the Bizee case study.

Introduction

The hook

Owners live in a dashboard. Clients live in their pocket. If the client portal feels like a shrunk website — no install, no thumb nav, no “home” — they bounce to Booksy.

On Bizee we treated the client surface like a lightweight app: standalone PWA, bottom navigation, and a storefront-first portal — without an App Store review cycle.

The objective

You will learn how to:

Ship separate installable experiences for owner vs client.
Use web app manifests (display: standalone) that match each audience.
Design mobile IA (bottom nav + home hub) that survives real thumbs.

Prerequisites

Next.js (or any SPA/MPA) deployable over HTTPS
Basic PWA concepts (manifest, service worker, A2HS)
Mobile-first CSS / component layout experience

Body

Step 1: One product, two install targets

Clients and owners want different homescreen icons and start URLs.

Audience	Manifest	Start mental model
Client	`manifest-client.json`	Book, browse, cart, profile
Owner	`manifest-owner.json`	Dashboard, appts, clients, store

Both use "display": "standalone" so Add to Home Screen feels native.

{
  "name": "Bizee Client",
  "short_name": "Bizee",
  "display": "standalone",
  "start_url": "/client/dashboard",
  "theme_color": "#0f172a",
  "background_color": "#ffffff"
}

Wire the correct <link rel="manifest"> (or inject it) for the route family the user is in.

Step 2: Bottom nav is information architecture, not decoration

Client bottom bar (Bizee pattern): Home · Browse · Book (FAB) · Cart · Profile.

Rules that kept us sane:

One primary action in the center (book).
Cart reachable without hunting the header.
Home shows upcoming + orders, not a marketing page.

Step 3: Service workers: progressive, not perfect day one

Ship installability first (manifest + icons + HTTPS). Then SW caching and push.

Bizee’s path: sw-owner / sw-client foundation + A2HS prompt after meaningful moments (e.g. post-booking) — not on first paint.

Step 4: Portal storefront is the client “front door”

Share links shouldn’t dump strangers into a generic dashboard. /portal/dashboard?businessId= is the storefront: services, shop, sticky Book / Cart / Share.

That’s how “one link for your business” becomes tangible.

Mental model

Share link / QR
      │
      ▼
Portal storefront (business-scoped)
      │
      ├─► Book flow
      └─► Client home (PWA) after login

Conclusion

Summary

Separate manifests for owner vs client installs.
Bottom nav encodes the client product.
A2HS after value, not before.
Storefront-first portals beat generic logged-in shells.

Call to Action

Open the demo on your phone and try Add to Home Screen: bizee.life/demo.
Shipping a PWA SaaS? Comment: one manifest or two?