Matter iOS App
Client: Matter
From 2022 to the end of 2024 I worked for an American start-up on a neuroscience iOS app. It is currently rated 5 stars and was awarded Apple’s Featured App of the Day.
I was initially hired for rapid prototyping and for helping with user interface ideas and was the first developer other than the team lead to join the team. It was assumed that we would work in any language and medium (most probably web-related) to hash out user interface ideas. Still, I quickly became a solid member of our expanded dev team of five working in Swift and SwiftUI. As well as just regular dev work I become the bridge between development and design and headed up quality control to make sure our dev work was matching the designs perfectly.
As a solo freelancer for over a decade, it was a great experience to work in a full-on software development team using proper processes like regular stand-ups and sprints. I was working alongside iOS developers with much more experience than me, and it was a great learning experience being a junior again.
As the bridge between development and design I had one foot in each camp. I helped with ideation and working out what was possible and what was on the edge of possible. SwiftUI is really great and doing simple things fast, but there comes a point where you have to hit it with a hammer if you want anything other than stock. Part of my job was wielding this hammer and knowing when to stop and when it hit it more.
I enjoyed flexing some creative front-end muscles and working closely with designers. Many of the ideas that made it to the final app started as kernels between myself and design. I’d hash out a some prototypes, design would take these functional ideas and make them look great and we’d iterate over and over again until it was shiny.
It was a team effort with a real mixture of skills that made it possible, but I’m proud to see at least some of my grubby fingerprints on the app. The memory card and emotion ratings were two of the projects where I was the project lead. The macro / micro universe inside your head theme was also something I helped shape (in case it wasn’t obvious, I like sci-fi and space).
It was humbling to work with people who were much better than me in their field with some serious technical chops in both design and coding.
It also helped bring my strengths into focus. I now know for sure, that I am happiest in that space between dev and design. That shared language between these two disciplines is so often lacking and I love doing justice to the design and giving it the care and attention that it deserves.
The Matter Neuroscience app is available on the app store.
On a personal level it was a real experience being involved in large group discussions and contributing creative ideas in a live and ever changing environment. My skills as a freelancer with project management, time keeping, scoping and knowing how to hit deadlines helped to adapt to the hectic nature of a start up.
It was a fully remote position, so I’ve really learnt how to remote work and upped my timezone maths game.
We had regular in real life meet-ups so I was lucky enough to visit America several times. I met some great people and discovered that I can pick up new programming languages like Swift. Thanks to a work colleague who really likes Taylor Swift I also discovered, that I too, really like Taylor Swift.
“No one in my small town thought I’d see the lights of Manhattan”
— Taylor Swift
