Mental Health Platform for IvySky

Project Type

Development

Tech Stack

ABOUT THE CLIENT

The @ Company has committed itself towards the creation of a more 'human' internet by enabling users to access the goodness of the internet, without sacrificing their privacy online. Founded in California, The @ Company is driving a revolution on the internet with their open-source products that create a safe environment for users, developers, creators and more on the Internet by creating digital identities for them which can be used to access all services on the web, without the need of divulging personal data or information publicly.

The Problem

As an existing client of ours, the @ company wanted to expand their suite of apps that utilize their trademark @protocol. Alongside their other apps that we were working on, namely @atmosphere and @atmosphere pro, @atarrive was another project that was in the queue for development.

Similar to the other apps, we decided on a timeline of 8 weeks to design, develop and deploy @atarrive. All the engagements were decided on a fixed price model, that was spread over a single phase.

TEAM ON CALL

The protocol libraries that would direct this project were already based in Dart and the project required experts of Flutter to give it the attention it deserves. With design and development queued from scratch for two different apps, we initiated a team of 6 Flutter experts, led by a tech lead, in the project that was spearheaded by an Engineering/Project Manager. Two design experts were also employed to build an impeccable UI/UX for the app and one QA engineer to make sure everything is cohesive and works well together.

A secure location sharing app in Flutter.

The app would use the highly secure @protocol for security and privacy in the backend.

The app would be able to share locations with other @sign holders and create events securely.

OUR APPROACH

Strategy Analysis Planning UI/UX Development Testing Delivery

Strategy

After multiple projects with the same company, we were approached by the @company to create an app to improve location sharing and event creation processes for their pet project which spanned over a period of eight weeks where we interacted with the client over a fixed cost model.

Analysis Planning

The client had a pre-condition where he required the SDK to be developed in Dart because of which the GeekyAnts team decided that Flutter would be a great choice as the base framework to take the project forward.

UI/UX

The client required that the designs seem as naturally flowing for the user because of which the design team invested time in research to curate designs which would stay true to the brand voice and provide an impeccable user experience

Development

Post the UI/UX phase, the development team took over to build separate packages to cater to the requirements of the app which included separate packages for contacts groups, location sharing and viewing, plus creating events and adding people to them which were integrated using the @atarrive app, one of our previous projects with the same client.

Testing

The product was put under rigorous manual testing before the release of every new feature to check for any discrepancies that might arise during the development process while also keeping the client in loop about the same.

Delivery

This collaboration with a returning client of ours was a huge success and the application is set to hit the market soon with the client being more than happy with the outcome of the project.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

The biggest challenge in this project was the exposure to a custom SDK that was built by the client and its integration. It was paramount to keep abreast with the changes that the SDK was going through and plan releases based on the dependencies on the SDK. Another challenge was to find an alternative to Google Maps and calculate the ETAs of users. We selected Open Source Maps as the ideal alternative for this and solved the problem swiftly.

In bird's eye view

Git was used for versioning and code management.
Trello was the tool of choice for task management.

DEVELOPMENT

This time around, the requirement was of an application that would utilize the @protocol built in Dart to allow people to share their locations with other users, either peer-to-peer or in a group and see each other's locations on the map, without divulging any other unnecessary data, a concept that lies at the heart of the @protocol. In addition to this, another feature demanded that the users should be able to create their own events within the app and add atsigns to them.

Since the SDK was built in Dart and was provided as a package, the obvious choice for the app development framework was Flutter. While planning the execution of this project, we decided to split the functionalities into independent packages that can be utilized by other apps as well.

This project was also a single POC spanning over 8 weeks. The first week was dedicated to design the UI/UX of the app and implement it. The next two weeks were spent on conceptualizing the logic behind the app and implementing it in Flutter and the rest were dedicated to implementation of packages and fixing issues and bugs, as well as, deployment of the app.

The designs were conceptualized in a way that the flow would seem natural to the user. The design team worked hard to ensure that the designs stay true to the brand voice and finalized the designs with the client, which were then sent to the development team for implementation.

The very first thing to do was to understand the SDK and the protocol that was to be integrated. Then this SDK was to be enabled for authentication, which was the main feature of the app that made it stand out. Since the SDK was written in Dart, it could easily be used as a package and declared as a dependency, which would enable the app to use it for services. Along with authentication, other features like contact management and a peer-to-peer file transfer system was integrated.

Once the UI was complete, we moved on to building different packages to cater to the requirements of the app. We developed separate packages for building contacts groups, location sharing and viewing, plus creating events and adding people to them. We published those packages on pub.dev for use and then proceeded to integrate these packages with the @atarrive app.

Post integration, we put all of our effort in improving the functionality and usability of the app, while fixing and bugs the team came across.

QA & testing was done at the end of each developed feature. The QA engineer indulged in manual testing for the features of the app, testing them under all possible scenarios whenever ready and re-iterating tests over already tested features around every turn. After every feature test, the build was shared with the client and verified, with any bugs or discrepancies reported, fixed and tested again for stability.

FINAL IMPRESSION

This was our second engagement with the client based on their previous experience with us. They also commended our professionalism and ability to plan the project well. The applications will be live & available to download and use soon and the client has explicitly expressed their interest in working with us in the future again. We are ecstatic to have gained a long-term partner in The @ Company, which is proven by the numerous collaborations they have done with us in our events. We're lucky to have them be a part of the family.

Case Studies.