One codebase for 100 000 orienteers

Background  

Hittaut is Svenska Orienteringsförbundet’s public health initiative. Participants use a map to find checkpoints in towns and nearby forests, register the code on each one and take part in a prize draw. Local orienteering clubs run it in 40+ towns from spring to autumn. It’s free and open to everyone, and some checkpoints are placed so they can be reached by wheelchair or with a stroller.

‍

Challenge 

The app had built up a lot of technical debt and needed a real update. For a non-profit project funded by partners and sponsors, that made every change slow and expensive. The design had also aged and no longer matched what people expect from a modern app.

‍

Solution

We rebuilt the whole app in React Native. iOS and Android now share one codebase, so a change gets made once and reaches both platforms at the same time.Before we started on the design, we did an accessibility review of the existing app. Hittaut is meant for everyone, so the report’s findings became the starting point for the redesign. Using WCAG 2.1 AA we identified improvements needed in the design – for example clearer contrasts, better icons and making the map more user friendly.The new application has better map downloads and offline support, so the app keeps working where the mobile signal drops. Hittaut is used outdoors, often with the phone in one hand and on the move, so the user experience needed to reflect that as well.

Result

• A stable, modern codebase
• One codebase for iOS and Android, which makes new features faster and cheaper to build
• An updated design built on an accessibility review, with better offline support

‍