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Leg 7: Reflections

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JoshuaW1990 edited this page Dec 8, 2016 · 3 revisions

Reflections on what we've learned this semester.

Alex Jackson

1. What did learn technically?

2. What did you learn professionally? Please note: this is not the same as the above question.

3. What do you wish I could have done differently?

4. If you were to do this all over again, what would you do differently?

5. If you could make one change to this Mobile Development course, what would it be and why?

Jun Wang

1. What did learn technically?

From this one-semester project, I gained a lot of experience in developing Android app, deploying simple web server on heroku, using Firebase for Database management and interaction with the android app, and using some fantastic libraries like retrofit, picasso, firebase-ui, etc to help Android App Developing.

2. What did you learn professionally? Please note: this is not the same as the above question.

I learned that:

  • Focus on some simple feature at the beginning is much better than starting with a complicated design. An app with a simple but beautiful and useful feature is much better than a complicated app with a lot of functions but implemented in a terrible way.

  • Considering about the back-end carefully and in detail before starting coding. For example, if the data structure in the database is not so good, sometimes it is necessary to cause a lot of additional work for improving the app in the future.

3. What do you wish I could have done differently?

I wished to prepare a much simpler design as the beginning and prepare the database on the web server as earlier as possible. After completing that implementation, add and polish the feature in the app generally.

4. If you were to do this all over again, what would you do differently?

At the beginning of the project, we spent a lot of time on some unnecessary work like building database by web crawler, implementing an ugly ui which we discard totally later, preparing two different types of back-end design (Firebase and Web-server based on Flask on Heroku). If we designed the app more in detail at the beginning, I think it is possible to be avoided. Thus, I think I will spend much more time on the design at the beginning including some implementation detail if I will do it all over again.

5. If you could make one change to this Mobile Development course, what would it be and why?

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