Did we just have one Coffee I/O we've had another Freaky Friday. It's something. In any case, a working week at Coffee IT is varied. What can we conclude from this? Two things:

1. It is clear that we really enjoy coming up with our own events.

2. At Coffee IT we really like the latest technical gadgets, innovation and trying out new techniques. We therefore seize every opportunity with both hands to do this.

The Coffee IT Freaky Fridays are a recurring concept for the team. During a Freaky Friday everyone works on their own projects. These are our own initiatives, so these projects are not covered by the apps we develop for our clients. The idea of ​​a Freaky Friday is that everyone can do what gives them energy and try out new techniques or tools. An iOS developer who is going to build an Android app in Kotlin, a marketer who is developing an API or a disco with Bluetooth lamps: the sky is the limit.

A quick overview of what we did this Freaky Friday:

CI/CD for Android
Who: Wessel

Wessel has been busy setting up Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) using Gitlab CI. This includes automating the testing, integration and delivery process. With Gitlab CI it is incredibly easy to set up a so-called building street. Because there was one recently Coffee I/O is given about Quality Assurance, Wessel chose to build on this.

For example, Wessel has defined the following phases:
– Build
– Quality Assurance
– Test

In brief
In the first phase, the project is compiled and a build is generated and cached. This build will be reused in subsequent phases to save time. In the Quality Assurance phase, the code is statically examined by means of linters (a piece of software that immediately recognizes and reports structural errors without executing your code). In the final phase, the tests are carried out. This last step is crucial for a good construction street. Often it takes a lot of time to run tests manually or it is done incompletely in the standard development process. By always performing the tests through an automated process, you reduce the chance that non-working code ends up in your VCS.

Merge request dashboard Apple multiplatform
Who: Deva, Lex, Fabian

Deva, Lex and Fabian have built a cross-platform (iOS, iPadOS and macOS) app with SwiftUI. With these apps they can clearly see which merge requests are still open for the various projects. With the dashboard they can immediately indicate that they are going to work with a merge request. The app has an accompanying widget that can also show the open merge requests on the home screen of your iPhone or iPad or in the Notification Center on the Mac.

Disco including BLE library and sensors
Who: Job, Daphne, Duco

Something with disco, a Bluetooth mesh network, sensors and automated processes. We can't say too much about this project either. But this time it was an even bigger party during the Coffee I/O.

User testing tool
Who: Tom, Raymond

How do you test a design before an app is developed? A customer often starts user testing during or after developing an app. This is a shame. After all, how do you find out whether the best choices have been made in the design process? You validate this process by user testing the design. This also saves valuable development hours because no unnecessary functionalities have to be developed and everyone is immediately on the same page. Tom and Raymond researched a suitable tool and set up a 'test' process for user testing of the design.

QA 
Who: Armijn, Sivar

classified.
Of course we are not going to reveal all our secrets.

Exploring with Figma
Who: Linda

We have been exploring for a while with Figma, a tool that brings everything together: designing prototypes, UX & UI and collaborating with multiple designers in one place. We already have one before wrote a short article about our new kid on the block (=Figma) and we are becoming more and more confident: Figma is a pleasant and well-arranged tool for both our team and the customer. So it's high time for Linda, our UX & UI Designer, to unravel the latest secrets of Figma.