Pocket Sales Assistant: Mobile App for Flipbooks

Development Process

The project involved a project manager, MPP (Kotlin Multiplatform) developers, Android and iOS developers, and testers.

We received detailed terms of reference and the finished design for iOS from the client.

• For Android, we decided to adapt the user interface according to Google’s guidelines. This approach gave the apps a more modern and native appearance, positively impacting usability. The guidelines produced good results without requiring the higher budget of custom development.
• The flipbook viewer (the part of the app that displays them), written in HTML and JavaScript, was taken from the web version and adapted for mobile on the customer’s side. However, our team handled the loading and interaction processes. This solution is unusual and somewhat experimental; typically, there is no need to load, update, and display content from the server as HTML and JS code, while requiring two-way interaction between the native app and an external web document.
• During the testing phase, we collaborated with testers from the client’s team. The app underwent double quality control.

The release was done in stages: initially, we made the app available to the client’s loyal audience and then refined it based on the feedback from both the customer and early users. This approach enabled us to easily test app functionality and observe real-time interest levels from the target audience, highlighting previously unnoticed advantages and disadvantages of the product.

The Hardest Part

The most complex aspect of the app was loading, storing, and displaying flipbook content.

A flipbook is an HTML page (web page) with JS code, representing an archive containing files of various types, where different elements are loaded separately. The app must ensure all flipbook elements are up-to-date and update them almost in real time. Additionally, downloaded flipbook must remain available for viewing even without an Internet connection.

How we solved these tasks

We utilized a local web server that runs directly within the application.

Svetlana Chernyavskaya

Project manager

“The development of the ToR and API was handled entirely by the customer. Their high quality greatly simplified our development process. Testing was conducted multiple times by two teams: ours and the customer’s. It’s worth noting that the customer did not impose strict deadlines on us. With careful attention to the ToR and API, double quality control, and comfortable timelines, we were able to create a high-quality product.”