CASE STUDY
Aquatec, an app to prevent the effects of climate change
Areas
Product Trio (Product Manager, Designer, Developer). Dual Track Agile. Metodologías ágiles. Diseño de experiencias de usuario. Orientación a outcomes e impacto. Innovación estratégica
Aquatec, a water and environmental technology company that is part of Aigües de Barcelona, needed a mobile application for an early warning project in the city of Badalona as a measure to adapt to climate change. At Runroom, we managed to capture all their requirements in a hybrid native application designed for citizens.
“Una herramienta que aporta valor a la ciudadanía de Badalona y que permite a Aquatec escalar esta aplicación para muchas otras ciudades que se quieran adherir al sistema de alertas climáticas Jordi Hernández, CIO Runroom”
Aquatec is a water and environmental technology company belonging to the Aigües de Barcelona group, offering consultancy and project development, installation, and implementation of solutions for optimizing water cycle processes and environmental protection.
Between July 2020 and December 2022, Aquatec had the opportunity to coordinate LIFE BAETULO, a pilot project involving the Badalona City Council, framed within the European LIFE Climate Action program. The aim of this program was to implement a Comprehensive Early Warning System to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of citizens and urban assets to climate-related hazards such as floods, storms, heatwaves, cold waves, snowfalls, windstorms, fires, and air pollution episodes.
In addition to a climate event management platform, Aquatec wanted to develop the Alerta Climática BAETULO mobile application to communicate any weather alerts at the municipal level to Badalona residents, as well as offer them recommendations and self-protection advice to avoid situations that could endanger their health or properties.
Hands on the app
With the challenge on the table, we opted for a hybrid development using the Ionic framework with CapacitorJS and notification management with Firebase Cloud Messaging.
Next, keeping Aquatec's needs for the app's evolution in mind, we devised a workflow that allowed us to work with vision and sufficient control over the project's progress, without losing flexibility.
After creating a multifunctional, dedicated team focused on solving problems and applying an incremental iterative development to the project, we started with the sprints:
- Sprint 0. It lasted one week, during which the app's style guide, local environment configuration, integration, and continuous deployment were worked on.
- Sprints 1 and 2. Each lasted two weeks, and with the entire team involved, continuous value delivery was achieved thanks to the dynamics included in each sprint, such as refinement, wireframing, team retrospectives to apply process improvements, and dedication to each demo presented to Aquatec at the end of each iteration.
We implemented continuous deployment in the app stores using Bitrise. This powerful tool allows us to automate the entire continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) flow for iOS and Android, ensuring the application passes all configured quality checks. With Bitrise, we can ensure a more efficient distribution process and direct integration with app stores, thus guaranteeing the availability of the latest updates for our users quickly and without manual steps.
“La ventaja de la tecnología que utilizamos en la app de Aquatec radica en su capacidad de implementar la misma aplicación de forma simultánea en iOS y Android, sin requerir duplicidad de esfuerzos. El resultado final se siente excepcionalmente nativo, lo cual lo convierte en una opción ideal para iniciar productos o desarrollar MVPs. Y si en algún momento nos encontramos con limitaciones, podemos tomar decisiones estratégicas sobre si continuar con una aplicación nativa. Jordi Sala, CTO Runroom”
For Runroom, this project was a new opportunity to apply our Agile mindset, which anticipates frequent and constant value deliveries, with client validation and constant communication. On this occasion, it also posed a dual challenge as it was a project with several interlocutors from the public administration.
Creating functionalities
Applying Aquatec's specifications and our Customer Centric approach, the app and its various sections were defined within the agreed timelines, from the home screen to notification settings, which in this case were of great importance and allowed users to determine if they wanted to receive them with a pre-alert, alert, or emergency level. The option to choose which types of climate hazards they wanted to receive notifications for was also enabled.
In addition to providing information about each type of hazard and its risks, the content was complemented with recommendations for different alert levels, including clear and easy-to-understand messages, some accompanied by infographics.
The Alerta Climática BAETULO app is multilingual, compatible with smartphone devices running iOS and Android operating systems, and contains all the technical and security specifications required to be hosted in the public Apple App Store and Google Play Store, as well as the requirements demanded in OWASP Mobile Top 10.
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