Mobile Articles
The (Dis)Advantages of Swift’s Flexibility
Over the past 3–4 years of learning and writing Swift code, I’ve had an interesting experience with the language. During this time, I have followed many online courses, started work on an iOS app that I plan to release on the App Store, and even created a prototype and internal tool for one of SEP’s […]
How Designers and Developers can use Shared Element Transitions to Improve UX
What are Shared Element Transitions? Shared Element Transitions are animations that move elements from one screen to another within an app. They help users understand how the interface changes when navigating between screens. They are particularly effective when users are browsing diverse content and frequently switching back and forth between screens. These transitions can be […]
Your App Uses Xamarin.Forms, but That Tech is Going Away. Don’t Panic! 😱
You may be hearing a lot of chatter about Xamarin.Forms going away. If your app is built in Xamarin.Forms, this is probably concerning news to hear. Our advice? Don’t panic! 😱 We recently sat down with Adam Livingston, Staff Software Engineer, and Charles Tippett, Engagement Manager, to get the scoop on the upcoming transition from […]
Testing React Native Apps: A Sweet Setup for Full-Stack Cross-Platform Testing
Short on time? The answer is to use Jest, React Native Testing Library, and Detox. Here’s a sample repo with it all wired up: https://github.com/klcantrell/testing-react-native-apps-post. The advantages of building an app with React Native apply when testing the app as well. When building, you write code once and get native apps that work well on […]
Is Your Xamarin.Forms Project Ready For Migration To MAUI?
What’s up with .NET MAUI? If you have seen any news about .NET 6.0 or anything Xamarin.Forms related, you have probably heard about the new framework called .NET MAUI. Microsoft has decided that the next major iteration of Xamarin.Forms will instead be replaced by the .NET Multi-platform App UI: MAUI. Since Xamarin support is intended […]
Designing Health, Wellness, and Medical Apps for Smart Watches: 10 Things to Consider
For many of us, smart watches have become everyday health and wellness devices: tracking our steps, monitoring our heart rate, charting our workout intensity. They can alert us when our blood sugar has gone too high or too low. They can even call and communicate with 911 dispatchers if we take a hard fall and […]
Cross-Platform Mobile Toolkits
Most developers agree that Flutter, React Native, Xamarin are the top three cross-platform mobile toolkits. If you’re just getting started on a project, it’s helpful to have your options narrowed down to this list of three, but there are still some major differences between these toolkits. To help you choose the best toolkit for your […]
meHive: The story of our mobile app
At SEP, we are always on the look out for new things to learn. When we saw a surge in mobile development, we decided to tinker with some new technology. And what better way to do it than learn along with our interns on our own mobile product? The year was 2013, and we decided […]
Should my mobile app be free or paid?
Recently, we helped a client build their first software product: an iOS app. When it came time to release the app into the App Store, our client asked an innocent question: “So…should our app be free or paid?” We were able to advise them on a direction that made sense for their project, but I […]
3 Xamarin.Forms Tricks to Maximize Shared UI Code in Mobile Development
In 2014 I was tasked with creating a relatively simple iOS/Android app from scratch using this newfangled mobile app development technology called Xamarin.Forms. I was on the project for a total of three days. I had years of C#/WPF experience but none in Xamarin, and this Forms business was the confounding icing on the proverbial […]
Swift iOS Tutorial: How to Customize UISegmentedControl
Customizing a UISegmentedControl If you have spent any time developing an iOS app, you have probably realized that customizing UI elements in Swift can be hard. There is either a checkbox that does what you want, or it takes hours of research and trial and error to get something just the way you want it. […]
App Crashing on 32-bit Devices When Resigning Xamarin.iOS IPAs
Recently on a project, we were receiving reports from some users that the iOS app we had developed with Xamarin was crashing immediately after opening the application, but only on certain devices. Basically the application would display the splash screen for a second or two, then would immediately return to the home screen. Once we were able […]