Norma Precision’s mission is to allow marksmen to become even better at their outdoor craft. The client approached us with a specified vision for a premium web and mobile application characterized by usability, reliability, and intuitiveness. The end product users’ awaited a brand new mobile and desktop app that would replace a previous mature solution no longer accommodating the client’s current needs. The discovery phase revealed the users’ needs and functional expectations. The scope of work, executed by Merixstudio’s dedicated product team with full project ownership, included:
app on the market supporting Aimpoint® Red Dot reflex sight
mobile users daily
high-fidelity design screens
languages supported
To effectively transpose the requirements into a usable product, we followed an Agile methodology with 2-week sprints. The 10-people project team covered all the bases starting from the MVP stage and further execution phase to maintenance, with an open prospect for continued collaboration.
The core of the proposed solution involved using Flutter, a modern high-performing cross-platform toolkit coming with Google’s stable support, a reusable code base, and fast time-to-market perspectives. This choice included a critical analysis of the toolkit’s capability for seamless external Bluetooth communications and the possibility of complex chart rendering. It allowed the project to fit high usability, incl. custom widgets, into a tight deadline that was of specific importance for the client and their users.
Flutter served as a technological basis for the functionally indispensable mathematical engine and precise calculator in the mobile version. It also enabled a flexible UI design, library accessibility, and cross-platform usability for Android and iOS. Flutter was complemented by other mobile setup elements. Firebase boosted development by enabling easy app development and releases, while Bitrise.io facilitated automated code management. Localizely provided added value for the mobile app’s supplementary multi-language user interface.
Our software experts also ensured that the final product reflected the client’s requirements. A deep dive into specific Domain Knowledge of the client’s outdoor activity niche allowed us to craft a highly usable and precise app based on complex mathematical algorithms created from scratch. These algorithms enabled users to have the projectile trajectory thoroughly calculated so that they could focus on perfecting their craft. To that end, we employed unit and manual testing which bulletproofed the application to work in a local environment.
For the desktop version, the Merixstudio team used ReactJS that, together with Redux and Webpack, provided a usable setup for the Iframe-based web app. The Flutter team also converted the Dart-based code into a desktop-capable version that powered the frontend of the web app. We also implemented REST API, HTML5, and CSS, while our Flutter experts’ calculations' code conversion supported the revamped version of the existing web app.
The project team’s flexible approach during Sprint 0 enabled a fast adoption of the most apt backend solutions. Merixstudio executed an AWS Lambda platform enablement to cater to the client’s serverless needs. Thanks to this solution, the integration with AirTable was possible because the product data derived from AWS was easily accessible to the mobile or desktop app.
Our custom-made mathematical engine processes calculations to display both metric and imperial units measurements. The tricky part about this process is to avoid conversion-related inaccuracies which, in this precision business, constitute the very risk of mounting estimation discrepancies. As a result of our software experts’ customized approach to this challenge, the app beats the relevant competition in a field-test “accuracy contest” related to the imperial-to-metric-units conversion.
The Kestrel integration facilitated wireless (IoT) communication with weather measurement devices. Thanks to this enablement the users can now fully leverage the precious wind, humidity, and other data coming from the weather stations via Bluetooth.
The AirTable feature allowed for easy retrieval and usage of the product data input once per day, which was necessary for the mathematical engine processing. The resulting JSON file with a product base would be available for download by the application and further utilized.
Thanks to a whole dedicated module, the app provides unique support for the Aimpoint® Red Dot reflex sight. This means that military units and special forces using this specific enablement can also take advantage of the ballistic calculator. The module provides the convenience of projectile trajectory calculations in both close-quarters combat and at more distant ranges without the need for the Aimpoint® Red Dot reflex sight readjustment.
Based on the 3DoF, the ballistic calculator determines the ballistic curve of the fired projectile, utilizing multi-faceted data to return a precise recommendation for the rifle scope’s adjustment.
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