iOS/Android Offline Maps App Praised by National Geographic
Client
The Client is a North American product company that offers digital cartography solutions.
Challenge
One of the Client’s product is an iOS/Android app that offers custom offline maps for various specific audiences, such as cyclists, tourists and hikers. Upon the initial app release, the Client didn’t have enough in-house mobile development and project management resources to continuously evolve the application.
Solution
The Client’s initial request was for Android and iOS app development resources. Yet, after learning about ScienceSoft’s large talent pool, the Client scaled the team request up. ScienceSoft shared the CVs for the requested positions and arranged the interviews with the candidates within just 3 days.
As a result, the Client hired:
- a project manager (for planning and overseeing the tasks as well as communicating with all stakeholders)
- a business analyst
- two Android developers
- two iOS developers
- a React Native developer (for evolving the cross-platform ‘Store’ module reused in the two app versions)
- a C++ engineer (for supporting the custom algorithms used to import/export the map data from/to the servers).
All design, QA, and back-end tasks were to be performed by the Client’s in-house employees.
ScienceSoft’s team of 8 experts have quickly adapted to the Client’s Kanban processes and have diligently followed the evolution schedule with high-quality monthly releases for over 2 years so far. During this time, they have optimized and evolved such features as:
- Real-time GPS location (available offline).
- On-demand GPS track recording.
- Integration of newly appearing maps into the app (and their publication to the map store).
- Time and distance estimation.
- Custom notes and photos linked to specific locations.
- Custom topography sign creation.
- Support of various formats (KML, CSV, GPX).
Results
While ScienceSoft’s 8 experts continue evolving the Client’s mobile products, the quality of the iOS and Android apps has been acknowledged by multiple brands, including National Geographic, The New York Times, and TIME.
Technologies and Tools
iOS: Swift, Objective-C, Objective-C++, MVVM-C Architecture pattern, Auto Layout (PureLayout), Combine, Core Data, CocoaPods, CMake, Jenkins (CI), Firebase (Crashlytics, Analytics, Config).
Android: Java, Kotlin, kotlinx.coroutines, Material Design Components, ConstraintLayout, RecyclerView-Selection, ShimmerLayout, Zxing, ORMLite, Junit, NDK, Djinni, Firebase (Crashlytics, Analytics, Config).
