HyClor Android & iOS App
HyClor Australia manufactures and supplies swimming pool and spa chemicals. As part of their customer service, they offer testing kiosk at participating stores to ensure that the chemicals in the customer’s pools and spas are at optimal levels. HyClor Australia wanted to extend the accessibility of their testing applications to be available to use at home while near the pool.
Service Areas
- Android/iOS App Development
Technologies
- Spring
- J2EE
- React Native
Issues
- Usability of certain test aspects are difficult to translate from a full-sized kiosk to phone
- Incorporating expected user functionality for app version that would not be expected on kiosk version, i.e. user test history
- Maintaining shared database between mobile and kiosk applications
- Keeping the same business rules between applications without duplication of code
Objectives
- Create a mobile app that has similar functionality and visuals to the in-store kiosks to ensure ease of use between the versions
- Use the base kiosk application to minimise double handling
- Create apps from the same code base to minimise management and development time
Research
React Native was chosen to create the apps as it was a natural extension of the React web-based application and allowed for both Android & iOS apps to be exported from one codebase. This choice also ensured that the user experience was the same across both platforms. Usability tests were carried out to provide the best functionality for specific areas that required adjustments to meet the mobile user’s needs instead of a desktop, such as the select menus and the selection of pH values. We developed a shared library that encapsulated all business rules shared between apps to ensure consistent results across all platforms. We made adjustments to the data model and API’s to ensure that we could utilise a single database across applications.
Conclusions
The HyClor iOS and Android apps provide an easily accessible way to test pool and spa water when close to the source. HyClor created this app for loyal brand customers who are confident in managing their pool water testing and will go in-store to purchase the chemicals when required. The app relieves the pain point of only being able to test when in-store and allows the user to view their test history, giving them a better overall view of their pool or spa’s health.
