Tasks and Duties
Objective: The main goal for this week is to have you design a comprehensive plan and create wireframes for a mobile application of your choice. This will give you hands-on experience in planning and designing mobile app user interfaces and translating your ideas into structured plans.
Deliverables: You are required to submit a file (in PDF format) that includes a detailed project plan, including project objectives, target audience, core functionalities, and a set of wireframes (sketches or digital mock-ups). The file should include at least 5 different wireframe sketches for various screens in the app.
Key Steps:
- Research and select a mobile app concept (e.g., fitness tracker, news aggregator, or task manager).
- Outline app features and user flow diagrams.
- Create wireframes for the main screens, ensuring you highlight key elements like navigation and content layout.
- Write a brief explanation (at least 500 words) of your design decisions and how they relate to user experience design principles.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Clarity and rationale behind the choice of mobile app concept.
- Logical flow and detail in project planning documentation.
- Quality, creativity, and usability of the wireframes.
- Overall presentation and organization of the deliverable file.
This task is designed to simulate the planning phase of app development, a crucial first step in the mobile app development lifecycle. It will help you build skills in conceptualizing projects, planning user experiences, and designing intuitive interfaces, all while setting the foundation for subsequent development tasks.
Objective: This week you will take your wireframes and project planning from Week 1 and implement the initial user interface prototype using a mobile app development framework (such as Flutter, React Native, or native Android/iOS). The focus is on translating design into code and practicing UI development.
Deliverables: Submit a single compressed file (ZIP) containing the source code of your UI prototype project, along with a README document that explains your coding structure, design decisions, and how to run the project. Include screenshots of the running app screens.
Key Steps:
- Select a mobile framework you are comfortable with.
- Set up the development environment and project structure.
- Recreate the key screens from your Week 1 wireframes, ensuring proper layout, navigation, and basic interactions.
- Comment your code adequately to explain UI components and logic.
- Document setup instructions and usage in a README file.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Functionality and responsiveness of the user interface.
- Clean, readable, and well-documented code.
- Effective translation of wireframe design into the prototype app.
- Completeness and clarity of the README document.
This task emphasizes practical coding skills related to mobile app UI development and requires you to submit a functional project file, providing you with critical experience in building app prototypes and learning how to iterate on designs through code implementation.
Objective: The aim of this week is to build on your earlier UI prototype by incorporating core functionality into your mobile application. This task focuses on the integration of interactive features, event-handling, and practicing debugging skills to ensure smooth performance.
Deliverables: You must submit a compressed file (ZIP) containing the updated source code that implements at least three core interactive features (for example, form submission, data entry validation, and dynamic content updates) along with a detailed troubleshooting report in PDF format that describes any challenges faced, bugs identified, and how you resolved them.
Key Steps:
- Identify and implement three core features that enhance user interaction on your app.
- Add functionality such as interactive forms, dynamic content display, or real-time updates.
- Thoroughly debug your code using appropriate debugging tools and techniques (such as logs, breakpoints, or debugging consoles).
- Document all bugs encountered, your diagnostic process, and the resolutions in a troubleshooting report.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Successful implementation of core interactive features with error-free functionality.
- Quality and clarity of the debugging and troubleshooting report.
- Effective code documentation and use of debugging techniques.
- Overall app stability and performance.
This hands-on task is crafted to simulate a real-life development scenario where integrating functionality and managing bugs is part of the development cycle. It helps to enhance your problem-solving skills and reassures that you can work methodically to ensure a higher quality product.
Objective: This week’s challenge is focused on extending your app's capabilities by integrating it with a public API. You will implement asynchronous data retrieval operations and display this information within your app. This simulates the process of incorporating external data sources into your mobile app.
Deliverables: Submit a compressed file (ZIP) that includes the updated source code for your mobile app with API integration, along with a comprehensive documentation file (in PDF format) explaining how the API integration was implemented, including code snippets, error handling mechanisms, and any limitations encountered.
Key Steps:
- Identify a suitable public API (for example, a weather API, news API, or sports statistics API) that does not require authentication or uses free access keys.
- Integrate the API into your mobile app, ensuring that data is fetched asynchronously and presented in a user-friendly manner.
- Implement error handling to manage potential network or data fetch issues.
- Provide comments in your code explaining how the API calls are managed and how data is processed.
- Prepare documentation that details the API endpoint used, the integration steps, and the display logic.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Effective and robust API integration with asynchronous data handling.
- Clean, well-documented, and maintainable code.
- User-friendly presentation of the API data within the app.
- Thoroughness and clarity of the accompanying documentation file.
This exercise is designed to further your understanding of integrating external data into mobile apps while handling asynchronous operations. This skill is essential for developing dynamic apps and will be invaluable throughout your career as a mobile developer.
Objective: In the final week, your focus will shift toward ensuring the quality and stability of your mobile application. The task involves creating a comprehensive testing strategy and carrying out both unit testing and integration testing on your app. You will also optimize parts of your app to ensure smooth performance and responsiveness.
Deliverables: You are required to submit a compressed file (ZIP) containing your final source code along with a detailed testing report (PDF format). The report should include an overview of your testing strategy, test cases used for both unit and integration testing, performance testing results, and detailed explanations of any optimizations made to the app.
Key Steps:
- Develop a testing strategy that covers both unit tests and integration tests for critical components of your app.
- Implement tests using a framework appropriate for your chosen development platform.
- Run performance tests to identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies in the app’s user experience.
- Apply optimization techniques to improve overall app performance (e.g., reducing load times, optimizing memory usage, or streamlining code).
- Generate a comprehensive testing report detailing test cases, results, and performance improvements.
Evaluation Criteria:
- Depth and breadth of the implemented testing strategy.
- Clarity and completeness of the testing report.
- Effectiveness of the optimizations applied.
- Correctness and maintainability of the updated source code.
This final task encapsulates the essence of mobile app development by emphasizing that a product is only as good as its performance in real-world conditions. It challenges you to ensure that your application is robust, well-tested, and optimized, thereby preparing you for real deployment in a professional environment. The skills practiced here, including systematic testing and performance optimization, are essential for delivering high-quality mobile applications.