Empowering Musicians' Wellness through Technology
Hey there I'm Louis, a senior iOS engineer with 8+ years experience writing and releasing apps. I'm excited to share the story of the Intermission App – a project that came to life through a collaboration between myself and Turn the Spotlight Fellows, Elena Urioste and Melissa White. They co-founded Intermission Sessions as a heartfelt endeavor to offer specialized yoga practices, providing a path for colleagues to better navigate the demands of their craft while fostering holistic well-being.
Together, we wanted to take their transformative yoga practice beyond in-person classes. Over nine months, I put my heart and soul into crafting and releasing this app.
Taking the helm as the principal developer, advisor and designer, I guided the Intermission App through every stage, from ideation to its eventual release. Aligned with the shared vision of Elena and Melissa, our collaborative efforts extended beyond coding. To cultivate collaboration and foster professional development, I brought on board two junior developers whom I had previously mentored as students in my time as a teacher at Pursuit. This not only added diverse perspectives to the project but also provided these talented junior devs with real-world industry experience, enhancing their portfolios for future employment. Together, over nine months, we navigated challenges, exchanged insights, and crafted a robust platform that surpassed expectations, resonating seamlessly with Elena and Melissa's mission of bringing holistic wellness to classical musicians globally.
Unfortunately, after three successful years on the App Store, our journey hit an unexpected roadblock. A copyright troll in Germany led to the app being taken down. However, the spirit of Intermission App lives on in this open-source repository, serving as a testament to our collaborative effort. It's a bittersweet reminder of the impact we made and the challenges we faced in bringing practical technology and wellness to classical musicians.
- Swift: Entirely written in Swift showcasing advanced proficiency in iOS development.
- MVC: Primarily strives for MVC, but borrows elements from several different architectures.
- Programatic UI: Both autolayout and frames-based approaches were used for building UI; SnapKit primary library for Autolayout
- Complex Networking: User authentication, cloud storage for favorites and videos watched statistics, bridging multiple CDNs into a unified network interface
- Cocoapods: Dependency management.
- Firebase: Guest experience, user authentication and cloud storage.
- Contentful: CDN backing all data models.
- Cloudinary: CDN for video hosting and streaming.
- Crashlytics: Data-driven insights
- Secure Credential Storage: Safeguarding user information.
- Social Login and Account Creation: Seamless user onboarding using email or Facebook.
- Built-in Bug Reporting: Streamlined issue resolution let you capture a screenshot and submit feedback right in the app.
- Volunteer Endeavor: Worked on a volunteer basis, insisting on a small budget for a dedicated team.
- From Concept to Reality: Conceptualized, designed, and developed the app from scratch.
- End-to-End Ownership: Architected, coded, and designed promotional artwork, demonstrating a comprehensive skill set.
- On-Time Delivery: Successfully completed development within the planned nine-month timeframe, balancing volunteer project demands with full-time development work.
- Inclusive Hiring: Prioritized inclusivity by hiring students from a coding bootcamp specializing in underrepresented groups.
- Brand Expansion: Facilitated growth in student base and increased interest in biannual yoga retreats.
- Social Equity Impact: Created an opportunity to leverage my developer skills to make a social equity impact through volunteer work.
- Open Source Initiative: Released the app's code as open source to inspire and educate others.
The Intermission App empowered fellows Elena and Melissa, elevating yoga instruction for classical musicians worldwide. By providing accessible yoga videos, the app expanded the reach of yoga instructors, attracting a global audience. The app additionally facilitated growth in their student base, increased interest in their biannual yoga retreats, and showcased two exceptional musicians who also happen to be women of color.
Special thanks to Turn the Spotlight for introducing me to their fellows. It's a rare opportunity for an iOS developer to volunteer their skill set and even rarer when that volunteer work can make a significant social equity impact.
And lastly, I extend heartfelt thanks to Charles Scalesse, my boss at the time, for his unwavering support in this endeavor. His voluntary contribution of extensive technical expertise played a pivotal role in advising and shaping the project, enriching it with valuable insights and guidance.
While there's no guarantee the code will compile, it's open-sourced to inspire and educate others. If come across this codebase and have questions about how something works, please feel free to send me a message at louis.tur@gmail.com