Console.log(weekly.1)
Let's get this party started
Welcome to the second edition of console log weekly, if this is the first blog post you opened on my Substack, just like in programming my weekly blogs start at 0, I recommend reading console.log weekly from the start as its a weekly update blog.
What I did this week
This week was a lot of design and out of the box thinking, as said in my previous post I had a lot of design work to do, after grinding Figma for a few hours I created a first version of the prototype, primarily focused on the UX flow, the next step is to do some user testing over the coming weeks and iterate to the best possible flow. The plan is to code this agile, so I’m not waiting a month to start programming, this way I can learn to build mobile apps while still perfecting the end product.
Development
Writing code without AI was a real fresh breath of air. I opened the documentation and started at introduction, i used my package manager Bun to create a project and opened index.tsx to start programming.
Writing code in react native is a lot like react, it is after all based on it. react native is a lot like like normal HTML, you code components and those appear on your phone. Using the familiar element flex box you can easily position everything on your screen.
I created the 3 tabs we will be using in the app Verzameling, Scan code and Instellingen. To accomplish this I used a (tabs) folder, in here I made View for each of my tabs. React native uses a layout, this means that everything i put in there appears on all the pages. in the layout I programmed a Tabs component, this native component allowed me to create an easy navigation bar for the application. throw on some icons from react-icons and some styling with native wind and you’ve got a menu.
Some feedback on myself
Completing the first iteration of the design was a success and programming without AI was really positive for me, I felt much more in sync with the project compared to other projects I’ve worked on. The challenge now is to keep it up, as the code becomes more complicated the urge to throw an LLM at will increase, it is my job to hold myself back in that aspect.
Next week
Next week is focused on planning the first user test and continuing the development of the app, the link with the CMS is a top priority and having some time to build the setting page would be nice. I also want to make a decision on the scan technology, what AR tech works best for my use case and how will we be scanning the links to it, this will range from a simple QR code to using training a machine learning algorithm that is able to see code in patterns.
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
- Steve Jobs
Any visuals / code snippets?