Driving tests, gamified
Zutobi is a Swedish company established in 2018 by five brothers: David, Tim, Leo, Joel and Lucas Waldenbäck. They invented a gamified way to teach people driving that would require minimal effort and at the same time keep the learner engaged.
The founders had all the features and content thought out and prepped, and they needed a mobile application development services company to wrap it into a cross-platform app for iOS, Android, and web.
Duration
Mar 2018 — 2023
Team
Project Manager
UI/UX Designer
2 Mobile Developers
3 Front End Developers
DevOps Engineer
BackEnd Developer
QA Engineer
Zutobi is a classic B2C product now having over 200K monthly users, and it was up to us to implement their vision for all major platforms out there.
We’ve come up with an MVP within four months of 2018. The team has been expanding it with features since, until it grew to the point when refactoring was required for effective scaling.
An MVP was delivered for both iOS and Android platforms, while the already existing website was supplemented with the functionality of the app. After that it evolved into a sophisticated web app and management center, with mobile apps also getting more content and feature-rich.
More Than Just
a Partnership
What once started as a limited partnership over an MVP delivery has now turned into close collaboration with a shared product vision, constant communication, and 100% confidence in the steps each party is taking.
The way EGO – as a mobile and web development services company – works on this project in many aspects contradicts conventional practice.
Usually, a development team would keep somewhat limited communication with the client to remain focused, but in our case, it is completely the opposite.
We also utilize SCRUM methodology in development. However, on this project, we remain flexible in using it. For instance, until the refactoring stage, the team synced only upon request. Now, when the web and mobile teams are having related tasks, we practice daily standups.
The Beginning
Zutobi approached us in March 2018. The MVP was delivered in June 2018.
The MVP version of the mobile apps included the following features:
Authorization (Signing up, signing in, onboarding)
Roadmap flow
Learning (lessons, categories, tests)
Payment processing (through subscriptions)
Stats (leaderboards, badges)
Settings
Ads
The website was similar to the app in terms of principal design but also allowed payments through Stripe. As a web application development company, we saw a lot of opportunities for further improvement.
The Take-Off
After the MVP went live, the Zutobi team put the development on pause, focusing on expanding the user base and generating more revenue. So when they came back in the fall of 2018, the team was changed significantly.
The first thing we had our hands on was the issues found by the Zutobi team. Some of them were crucial for further scaling and user base growth.
Then our Android and iOS app development agency switched to product expansion and optimization.
The Upgrade
The mobile applications got payment process and authorization flow upgrades. New driving tests were added, allowing multiple answers. App speed was optimized as well.
The website also has been getting dramatic updates to its front end and back end. The front end was significantly updated for search engine optimization, and more updates are on the way. We’ve also been adding a blog, and designing and implementing new pages on the website.
That helped Zutobi’s writing team produce and distribute content among multiple courses, lessons, or exams more effectively.
The back end was improved in terms of security. The admin functionality was expanded to provide the Zutobi team with more flexibility. Almost every API was rewritten to optimize the website’s speed.
And due to its growth in 2020, we realized the app requires significant optimization for further scaling. One of our developers suggested reaching this goal by migrating from React Native to Flutter. Eventually, he convinced the client that it would help make the apps even more responsive and ready for scaling and high loads.
So as of November 2020, the EGO iOS and Android mobile app development company is completely rewriting the app.
In a few weeks, we’ll finish rewriting the backend from PHP to Python. The mobile app is being made in Flutter instead of React Native, and the website will run on TS+NextJS instead of ReactJS.
This refactoring stage has been bringing us a lot of unique insights, and we’re about to share them in a separate case study.
Tech stack
Backend
JavaScript
React
ReactNative
Bootstrapped with ReactNative init
MobX
ReactNavigation
Facebook SDK
GoogleSignin
Firebase Cloud Messging
Google AdMob
npm
Python
Flutter
Next.JS
Redux
Language
PHP
JavaScript
Python
Terraform
Framework
Slim (PHP)
ExpressJS (JavaScript)
Django (Python)
Libraries
Stripe
Google SDK
Django Rest Framework
Facebook SDK
Firebase
Propel
Unit tests
Django tests
Coverage
Services
Google Cloud + Kubernetes
Sentry
Graylog
Technologies
RabbitMQ
Docker
Databases
Redis
MySQL (Read + write replicas)
Frontend
Language
JavaScript
Framework
ReactJS + TypeScript
NextJS
Libraries
Redux
WebPack
i18n
Sentry
Stripe
Unit tests
Jest
Mobile
Language
Typescript
Dart
Framework
React Native
Flutter
Libraries
Mobx
Redux
Error monitoring
Sentry
Sentry
Get it On
