The developers of Touchbase started by defining the structure for storing user data, which includes three main components: User Document, Posts, and Images. The User Document stores all information about a user, including their name, expertise, job title, and login credentials, and is stored under a unique UUID to prevent duplication. The Posts document stores information about each post created by users, including the author ID, blurb, hyperlink, image path, publication type, and time posted. The Images document stores images uploaded by users and associates them with the user's document using a unique ID. The data model is designed to be flexible and customizable, allowing developers to modify the attributes used in the User Document and Posts documents through a config.json file.