Hello!
I'm Hans, and I've been working as a mobile developer at UniqueGood Company for about 3 months during my probationary period.
I'm sitting here, writing and erasing repeatedly.
What words should I use
to fully convey my experience at UniqueGood Company?
How can I show
the life of developers creating the Realworld app?
I keep pondering these questions.
Although the title of this post is "Looking Back on My Probationary Period,"
I thought it might be interesting to talk about
the "onboarding" process for "mobile developers,"
which you may not have heard much about!
So in this post, I'll introduce the onboarding tasks for mobile developers
and the unique culture of mobile developers
at UniqueGood Company!
What do mobile developers do at UniqueGood Company?
Among developers, mobile developers handle
various tasks including app development,
version management, deployment, and payment management.
Especially since it's an app that players use directly,
we also need to pay attention to usability.
At UniqueGood Company, app developers are creating
Android and iOS apps using Flutter,
a cross-platform framework.
We're not only developing new Realworld services and fixing minor bugs,
but also listening directly to players' feedback
and reflecting it in the app!
Besides Realworld, we're developing various products
including internal company apps and service management apps.
Onboarding and Probation
During the first two weeks, I spent time
getting to know my team members
and getting acquainted with the Realworld app.
Especially for developing the Realworld app, I not only set up
the necessary development environment
but also spent time learning essential knowledge
by directly implementing parts of the app!
During the onboarding period, the screen I needed to create
was the Realworld game details page.
Initially, I thought I would simply need to
call the necessary data through APIs
and display it on the screen... but
Unexpectedly, there were many things to consider,
and technically it required content that was
more difficult than I had simply thought.
For game introductions, there are various elements
like tags, photos, and stories,
but if creators haven't set them,
they shouldn't be displayed on the screen.
I had to think a lot about usability,
such as properly maintaining spacing
and arranging these elements.
There were also various technical challenges,
such as changing the color of the back button
or search button based on scroll state,
changing tab colors,
buttons that display differently based on sharing or payment status,
and maintaining data when viewing the full image slider.
Fortunately, I was able to ask colleagues about parts I didn't know,
and they also shared tips with me in advance,
so I was able to complete the task on time!
Also, while working on the onboarding task,
I applied improvements that I thought
would be better than the existing screens!
These included in-text link clicks, icon color improvements,
button animations, and gradient backgrounds.
We could discuss improvements by showing them directly through the app
and quickly apply them to the actual Realworld.
I was especially proud of the button animation
because it could be applied throughout the entire app ㅎㅎ
During the onboarding period, I was able to understand
Realworld's environment and project structure,
and also learn UniqueGood Company's work methods.
Thanks to this, I was able to quickly adapt to the work
and smoothly proceed with Realworld maintenance
such as handling bug reports and applying improvements,
as well as collaboration with other teams.
It was a time when I could properly experience
the characteristics of a startup
where everyone works toward common goals :)
Mobile Chapter
At UniqueGood Company,
we call the gatherings of server developers
and mobile developers "chapters" respectively!
I'd like to introduce the unique culture
of our mobile chapter.
Open to Technology Adoption; We're open to introducing new technologies!
Realworld uses Flutter,
a cross-platform framework.
With one development cycle, we can create both Android and iOS apps!
Flutter has been actively updated until recently,
with new technologies continuously being introduced.
At Realworld, we're constantly studying
to provide better experiences
and for the growth of our chapter and developers.
We're always ready to embrace any technology or feature
we think is necessary to advance Realworld!
PoC; We test various approaches before introducing new technologies
Before introducing new features or technologies,
we learn about them through PoCs.
We first experience the pros and cons of new technologies
and consider whether they can be applied to Realworld
and what effects they might bring.
Strong Bonds
This is true company-wide, but especially in the mobile chapter,
we're always working for each other's growth.
We think through errors together
and conduct code reviews to check each other's code.
During my probationary period, the culture and atmosphere
were so good that I thought "This is what a startup is like."
I really appreciated that they were ready to listen
to any opinions if they were for Realworld and users!
Focusing on Development
We have an environment where we can focus
on Realworld maintenance and developing new experiences!
Time-consuming testing and deployment
are handled using Code Magic services.
Also, we're currently working on
changing from multi-repo to mono-repo,
and we're looking forward to reducing code reuse
and having time to test individual features!
Looking Forward
Actually, there are still many things
we want to show players in Realworld.
My mobile chapter and I will continue to work hard
to create better, more user-friendly apps!
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