Building the Anyplace iOS App
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I have always believed in the power of technology to bring freedom and flexibility to our lives. This belief was at the core of my journey with Anyplace, a company whose mission was to make it easier for people to live and work where they want, when they want. Over the five and a half years I spent with this US-based company, I had the incredible opportunity to lead the development of their iOS app from scratch, work with a diverse global team, and travel the world. This experience not only honed my skills as an iOS developer but also enriched my understanding of global work dynamics and cross-cultural collaboration.
In this blog post, I’ll take you through the technical and strategic aspects of building the Anyplace iOS app. From ensuring app stability to leading collaborative design efforts and implementing data-driven insights, each step was a testament to our commitment to excellence and user satisfaction. Join me as I share the highlights of this journey.
Achieving Stability and Enhancing User Engagement
Delivering the Anyplace iOS app with a 0% crash rate required meticulous attention to detail. We made extensive use of optionals, ensuring they were safely unwrapped with proper nil checks. This practice, combined with avoiding memory leaks and using trusted third-party libraries, ensured the app’s stability.
Rigorous manual testing was a cornerstone of our strategy after our automated testing was completed. Our internal teams tested the app thoroughly, and we used continuous deployment using TestFlight to distribute it across various devices. Regular updates to the minimum deployment target kept the app stable on the latest iOS versions. This careful attention to detail paid off, resulting in a stable app and a 25% increase in user engagement.
Streamlining the User Journey: Enhancing Booking and Verification
Given the high average transaction value at Anyplace, creating a smooth and trustworthy booking flow was essential. We focused on reducing steps and moving verification tasks to the background. Using Jumio for ID verification and Plaid for income verification, we ensured compliance while maintaining efficiency.
Through A/B testing, we optimized the user journey, reducing linear processes and enhancing the overall experience. These improvements cut process time by 40%, making the app more user-friendly and efficient.
Data-Driven Insights: Implementing Event-Based Tracking
Initially, we lacked event-based tracking, which limited our understanding of user behavior. By integrating event tracking with Firebase and Google Analytics, we gained detailed insights into user interactions. Setting up funnels allowed us to visualize the entire customer journey, from search to booking and beyond.
This data-driven approach enabled us to develop targeted features, resulting in a 30% increase in actionable insights. The ability to correlate user actions with our objectives ensured that our feature development was both relevant and impactful.
Leading Collaborative Design for Consistent User Experience
As the product lead, I facilitated cross-functional team meetings to gather feedback and requirements from various departments. This collaborative approach helped us prioritize features and create detailed design specs for both Android and iOS apps.
Ensuring design consistency across all platforms was a challenge we embraced. Using Figma, we created a comprehensive UI kit that maintained uniformity across our apps. Our Android app design followed the iOS design, ensuring a streamlined user journey and cohesive look and feel. Despite being a small team, we achieved a unified design language across all platforms.
Centralizing Operations: The Ops Tool
Our internal teams often struggled with navigating multiple tools to gather information. To address this, I initiated the development of an Ops tool that centralized all necessary information in one place. This tool provided a unified interface, reducing operational response time by 50% and significantly improving efficiency.
By bringing all scattered information into a single platform, we alleviated stress and overwhelm for our customer support, operations, and market destination specialist teams. This centralized approach was a game-changer in managing our operational workflow.
Streamlining Agile Pipelines: Efficiency and Focus
When I joined Anyplace, much of the work was handled ad hoc, disrupting our dev team’s workflow. To streamline processes, I established new Asana boards where incoming work was logged, and all dependencies were resolved before sprints began. This ensured that when tasks reached the development team, they were complete with all requirements and approvals.
We also translated agency reports into actionable tasks, creating focused two-week sprints. This brought clarity and focus to our team, reducing sprint cycle time from 3 weeks to 2 weeks. By organizing and prioritizing work efficiently, we created a more productive and cohesive development environment.
Conclusion
Working at Anyplace was a transformative experience, allowing me to lead and innovate in a global, remote work environment. From ensuring app stability to achieving design consistency and streamlining user journeys, my time at Anyplace honed my skills in iOS development, UI/UX design, and strategic product management. The opportunity to travel and work from anywhere was invaluable, enriching both my professional and personal life.
As I reflect on my time at Anyplace, I appreciate the valuable experiences and lessons I gained. These experiences have equipped me to contribute effectively to any global team and continue to grow as an iOS developer.
If you’re interested in exploring the app, you can download it from the App Store –
Thank you for following along on this journey. If you have any questions or would like to discuss my experience further, feel free to reach out.
