SwiftUI and Sipped

Apple recently announced a new UI framework called SwiftUI. This was perfect timing as I was not ready to trek through UIKit and Core Data to build this app. Therefore I began using SwiftUI from the start after training my machine learning model using Apple's Create ML app. I had dreams of building an app that could be used over iOS, iPadOS and MacOS using SwiftUI. Being a huge Mac fan I was so excited to analyse what I had drunk during the month on my Mac just by taking photos of it on my iPhone. The idea was inspiring. Along with the release of SwiftUI Apple also released a Core Data Cloud Kit syncing framework, which meant I could store my data in the cloud simply by writing it to my device.

The MVP began and in short several routes were explored along the journey of creating the MVP. I used Firebase as a core MVP starter and later shifted all my "backend server" requirements to CloudKit. During the course of development, I got a designer to jump onboard to restrict my endless (but not great) UI design work, further acting as a constraint for all my dreams, otherwise, I would keep tweaking the app and never launching it.

Something so simple as tracking what you drink turns out to be a mammoth task, as it always is with software development. Certain things had to be put in place to scale for other countries to use the app correctly, for example, a glass of wine in the UK was a different volume and thus amount of units in the US.

After playing around with some ideas I began the MVP build.