CoffeeSnob
Early Development
The Initial Idea
After getting through to the end of the cs50x course I was tasked to make a final project. I had no real clue what I wanted to do except to create something that was new and fresh and I remembered that my girlfriend who is a product designer had a protoype that she created recently that I could potentially build. Given my experience and that I was the only developer working on this project I made sure to give myself a deadline of 1 month.
13/3/24
The Prototype
The prototype included an array of features from authentication, filtering by coffee preferences, a rendered map and a routing system to get the user from point A to point B, So I bit the bullet and took it on. After a few days of tinkering with the environment setup I was away with the build....
13/3/24
Challenges
After 2 weeks of building with React and Expo I later found them limiting in scope as they could not provide an adequate system for creating for IOS. I soon had to rebuild the application from scratch again this time using XCode and Swift. This seemed the best option and with only 2 more weeks to finish my project I needed to learn quickly.
27/3/24
Apple Development
I had to humble my self and take a new approach to the way I was going to rebuild CoffeeSnob. I knew I only had 2 weeks to go and I could not step in with the same presuppositions from before and so I took the rudimentary approach and brainstormed and decided to focus on 2 features which were; render a map and make it interactive and display cafe cards. I found TomTomMaps for IOS a great tool to use though very restrictive in its methodology I did find it very useful as a learning tool.
29/3/24
The Rebuild
It was not easy diving into a new environment whilst also learning a new language but I thought why not. I had nothing to lose. So after watching some tutorials on the basics of SwiftUi and reading the documentation from TomtomMaps I was able to tick off half of the list of features I wanted to build in the rebuild because I was honest with my self about what was achieveable in the short time frame.
4/4/24
Welcome to CoffeeSnob
I am grateful for how the app turned out, though I can say it is not exactly like the prototype, However, I do believe I have gained an understanding of what this app could become with further development and the support of a team. Working on this project has given me a new appreciation for mobile developers; it is no easy feat, but I am glad to have learned so much in such a short amount of time.
12/4/24