Traffic Live CH is a mobile application that provides information about danger zones and traffic disruption on the roads and highways of Switzerland. Users can see precise indications of time lost in traffic jams, changes of the situation and revocations. App provides the possibility of creating a profile by selecting the cantons and highways of your choice, moreover messages (push, APNS) are configurable as well. You are always up to date in real time about what is happening on the roads and can easily choose what way is best to drive. This service is offered by Delta Information Services.
Our collaboration with Delta Information Services started in July 2014, when they asked us to create an app from scratch on the base of initial Traffic Live app. We created new UI scheme and graphical designs and assigned dedicated development team to perform production. Now app is available Traffic Live CH in the AppStore, it was successfully released in early 2015. And we’re continue improving product release by release to make it fitting exact drivers needs the best way.
Features:
display events on the Swiss roads map in real time
receive notifications about situation on the roads even if the app is closed
filter events by type
check the list of all events that have happened and are happening
report an event via app or by calling
set own profile with specific Swiss regions (choose canton, highways and roads)
suspend notifications for different periods of time
in-app purchases
work in offline mode
support 3 languages: French, German and Italian
smart icons on the map that shows not only the event type, but direction and time lost
users rating
app is based on subscription
Solution provided:
- Reviewed and performed a technical analysis of requirements
- Created a solid, detailed technical design using existing platform as guidance.
- Created design for Traffic Live CH web
- Development team has been assigned for complex product development from scratch performing mobile development, QA Testing and Project Management;
- Agile approach implementation for development: utilization of Jira for planning and tasks settings and Confluence for technical documentation. Weekly status updates calls and demos performing for discussing prior work and progress;
- Started development with the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach (you can read more about this approach in our blog post) to deliver app faster to get users reviews.
We developed a mechanism to display events on the map based on the Swiss system of coordinates. Events are classified by type and marked with different colors (event types like traffic jam or accident), size (the amount of time you can lose if choose this way – this time is displayed as a number) and direction of jam (with arrows), if it exists. These events are displayed in real time and user have the opportunity to report the event directly from the application, and/or by calling the service hotline (his position will be checked automatically, if user provided the app such permissions). And if you’d like to see more information about the event, you just need to tap on it and detailed information will appear on the screen. All events can be filtered by type so you can choose what events to show on the map. Also there is a list mode in the app, where you can see all events in chronological order.
Push notifications can warn user about current events on the swiss roads. They can be configured directly from the app and have great amount of settings: user can choose specific canton or road just tapping on it on the special map (all selected cantons are colored if they or some of their roads are chosen), or switch on only critical events notification. And at last he can suspend notifications for some period of time, if he doesn’t need them at all.
And more:
work with GPS
content management system
work with web service (JSON and SOAP)
created solution to calculate and show event icons direction
update data in real time
select canton and roads on the map (disable/enable)
app localization
display formatted text
app analytics
Updating texts resources without updating the app;
Touch-based map region selection;
This project is really challenging, not only technically but also in building proper communication and team work process. The project reveals how important tight collaboration is between development and Client’s teams and the impact it has on the product delivery.