I’ve been lucky enough to deliver around 5 #1 Apps all of which had their own challenges and quirks. While it feels like websites and apps are homogeneous they are quite different breeds apart in many respects. For a start, you’ve got the iOS and Android elements – both need to be catered for. Though it’s possible to use something like Reactive Native to minimise the amount of work, each app still needs to be created and tested.

Apps also have a ‘feel’ about them (we called this the native feel) unlike websites, and trying to create a native feel using a website does usually involved having JS do a lot of the heavy lifting (which can cause issues with older phones and poor internet connections).

Usually the biggest challenge for delivering iOS and Android apps is the difference between the two when “submitting” the app. Unlike a website which you can simply deploy to, the relevant brands have their own way of working and at any time can stop your deployment – this means you have to assume this may happen when planning your delivery.

A couple of interesting apps I’ve worked on noted below:

5 Gold Rings was an outsider when it first came in. I’d not heard of them before, but after watching the show got a really good understanding of how it worked – I then had to go about converting the show format into user stories for the team.

We managed to deliver the end product within record time and with all the features originally discussed – including the ability for players to record their score, view a “how to play” section, and link out to relevant competitions.

Love Island hit it off pretty big time for reality TV. The app had literally millions of users and was used for a number of functions. News feed for info on what was going on in the ‘villa’, quizzes to keep people engaged (along with adverts to monetise the engagement), the shop which sold £3,000,000 of water bottles, and the voting element (which gave users a chance to feel like they were part of the action).

The video below shows me using the love island app in the shop section: