CUSTOMER
De BouwApp, a product en brand of Concepteurs BV.
DIENSTEN
Storyboard, architectural overview, UI/UX design, product vision board, mobile app, admin portal.
WEBSITE
debouwapp.nl
In 2017, the founders of the BouwApp approached Recognize with an ambitious future plan for their app. A few years earlier, they launched the first version of the app, which informed construction and infrastructure companies about the progress of projects in the project environment.
The desire was clear: the existing app had to be replaced by a new and improved app that would enable mutual communication with the project environment. During the first meeting, there was an immediate connection. We shared the same vision of the field. This resulted in a collaboration that continues to bear fruit to this day.
Meanwhile, the BouwApp has grown significantly in both domestic and international markets, and thousands of projects have been using the BouwApp as a communication tool.
The desire from BouwApp was clear: a future-proof app that makes mutual communication between the project team and the project environment as accessible as possible. The Recognize team already had experience in the field and our vision clearly matched that of BouwApp. We organized multiple brainstorming sessions where everything was open for discussion and we worked step by step toward an ambitious yet achievable ‘product vision board’.
Next, our design team developed a story map. This outlines the journey of the users of the tool. It forces you to view the upcoming product through the lens of the end users and prioritize the user experience (UX) from the very beginning. After discussing and aligning the story map, we developed the architecture of the app and the management environment, ultimately leading to the development of a prototype. Some readers may have already recognized the well-known scrum methodology.
The development of the new BouwApp also followed the agile method. The work was done in sprints of two weeks by our team, consisting of a back-end developer, a front-end developer, and a full-stack developer. The latter was Bart Wesselink, a talented newcomer of only 17 years old at Recognize at that time. The development of the BouwApp was his first major project, and he was supported by more experienced and specialized colleagues.
The trust in Bart paid off, as the BouwApp has now become a great success, and Bart himself has grown to become the Head of Development at Recognize. Bart is still closely involved with the BouwApp and rightfully proud of what he has developed together with the team.
Ultimately, the app was developed in about 5 months. Apart from the app itself, the backend of the app was also very important. Through the management module, people without much IT knowledge had to be able to easily and quickly use the app for environmental communication.
After the delivery of the new BouwApp in 2018, the app has been continuously developed and improved. The collaboration between BouwApp and Recognize goes beyond ‘customer’ and ‘supplier’ in this phase as well. We constantly plan sessions to brainstorm about new opportunities. BouwApp brings input and feedback from its clients, and we link that to the latest technological developments. This way, we come up with innovative solutions that differentiate BouwApp.
This way of collaboration is paying off. BouwApp is growing rapidly, and users are enthusiastic. Whitelabel versions of the app have also been released. These are duplicates of the original app but in the branding of a contractor or client. An international variant has also been launched under the name SitePodium, which is being used in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia.
In addition to continuous improvement, adding functionalities, and internationalization of the app, there are also other developments that we respond to together with the BouwApp. This way, the app is becoming increasingly better at collecting valuable data that provide important insights into the construction and infrastructure world.
Together, we will continue to work hard to make the BouwApp even more valuable for the target audience. It is a great collaboration that promises a lot of good things for the future.
"With Recognize, we not only have a fantastic software supplier, but above all, we have a strategic partner who shares our vision for the future and looks beyond the technology."
Curious about what we can do for you? Or can you do something for us? Then we would love to hear from you! Feel free to call or email. We are happy to come by for an introduction. And of course, our doors on the seventh floor of the Javatoren in Almelo are always open for you.
