Case Study
Swift – a progressive web app for a progressive company
It’s exciting when a client comes to us with a very specific idea in mind that we need to then bring to life. Of course, a client having a specific idea doesn’t necessarily make things easier. Our job becomes all about finding the right solution that will turn that idea into a reality for them.
With the Swift progressive web app (PWA), we faced this exact challenge. The company had a very clear vision for their mobile app and knew exactly what problem it would solve for their customers. We now had to build the app to meet those specific requirements, and come in on their budget.
Getting to grips with the mechanics of the app
The first step was to understand what the app needed to do. This meant getting to grips with Swift’s offering. The company aims to provide individuals and small-to-medium businesses with a courier solution that allows them to save money on courier fees the same way a larger organisation would with a retainer for regular use.
The app needed to do three things:
- Connect to Swift’s larger system and network
- Provide a client-facing interface for sending and tracking parcels
- Allow couriers to provide details of available shipping space
Thankfully, the client came to us with a well-conceived pitch deck that had a clear flow for the user interface as they imagined it to work. Using this, we could then scope out the project and decide on the best technology to use for the app.
Why the progressive web app solution
As we got to grips with the project, we realised that the best solution would be to use a progressive web app rather than a traditional mobile app. A PWA is cheaper to build, allowing us to fit in with the client’s budget better. PWAs also provide a unique hybrid experience of having an app icon on your smartphone but also using a mobile website.
The progressive web app that we built is a Javascript service that runs on top of a normal web app, allowing users to have an icon on their smartphone. On an Android phone, this works in much the same way as a normal mobile app. However, on an iOS phone, you still get an icon but that takes you straight to the mobile website on the Chrome web browser. The rest of the app that we built uses our normal .NET 6 framework with an MVC pattern.
It was an exciting challenge to build this app and we’re very keen to see how the service grows. We’re also very happy that we were able to come up with a solution that met Swift’s needs entirely and fitted into their budget. The initial development and prototyping to live was undertaken by Netgen and the Swift internal team then took over the development and maintenance of the progressive web app.
