StudXpress - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, I did.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Finding the key user needs and optimizing the app to fit more low end devices the students use.

_{Francis Eshun Boateng}

I am currently a second year Computer Science student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. I am an 18 years old Ghanaian. Growing up, I loved technology. From the smallest watch to the biggest super computers. I started playing around with computers at the age of eight, and I began getting more passion towards it. From my 10th grade, I started writing algorithms and relatively smaller computer programs. I joined my high school’s IT club and we worked on several projects together including beginner designs for the school’s online result portals. I developed my first fully working Android program when my roommates wanted me to create a messaging app that only our room would know about. During my senior year, hoping to continue studying abroad, I wrote SATs, passed, got admitted in several universities in half a dozen countries. For some rather personal reasons, I didn’t enrol.I was still an intermediate developer when I entered the university. I worked on some projects but I highly accelerated a few weeks after enrolling at the university. I took part in a hackathon that was well above my standard. Seeing all those powerful and innovative people, I was hugely motivated and it further changed the path I was on. If anything, it increased the slope with which I worked. Over the summer holidays, I perfected my programming skills to a well high up level, and I started working on professional projects. With determination, hard work, and assistance from a few friends, I have reached an employable state at a quite young age. I also have a few other projects that I am working on. At present, I frequently help other students in my class and other freshmen to take the right path and reach their potential selves in the course that they have chosen.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

I. 'Google Photos': It has several machine learning features strapped right into it and, I admire the way it manages photos. II. 'Snapchat': As a person fascinated by augmented reality, I could never not mention the near flawless AR features of 'Snapchat'. III. 'Google Earth': The sheer beauty, map rendering and street view features of this app really fascinate me. IV. 'Fabulous': This is a fitness app but I actually installed it just because of its UI. I love UI designing and the 'Fabulous' app gave me several design ideas as I had started professional development.

How long have you been working on this app?

3 months.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

As a student myself, I have experienced the sometimes high standard of living in our colleges and universities. The function of the app is to inform students about the various vendors on a campus that offer discounts that have been negotiated by the 'StudXpress' team. The users then can just buy stuff at a discounted rate, thus, spending more but paying less.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

The 'StudXpress' app boasts of many powerful features such as real time updates, cloud messaging, and in-app messaging provided by Firebase for showing the users the available discounts all over the campus, real-time fine location for personalizing the available discounts based on the student’s location.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

I. AR: future versions will have AR features that will help users view the products in AR mode. II. Messaging: Being already tested on, the future version will allow users to directly contact vendors if they want to make further enquiries that weren't provided in the app. III. Route-to-vendor: the future versions will enable students to have a direct route to a vendor location from their current location.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Share the app to friends and other students to make them aware of the great discount offers on campus.