Butterfly

Mobile, Full-Stack Development, Flutter, Google ​Cloud, Firebase

Developed a suite of new features for a university ​social media app including a game economy built to ​gamify socialising at university

Defining User Needs

Through the market research that the company surveyed and through a critical evaluation ​of the app’s usage, I pinpointed 3 areas that improve students’ experiences on the app:

Design & Implementation

To address the three Key Takeaways laid out prior, I proposed and implemented the ​following three features:

Student Discounts

A major player in the student app field is Unidays. After ​verifying a student's university email, Unidays provides free ​student discounts from popular brands. They charge a ​commission on each order a student places, generating ​over £60 million in revenue in 2022.

Coincidentally, Butterfly already verifies students' emails at ​sign-up, so using a similar strategy was an easy decision. ​Adding student discounts would provide Butterfly with a ​revenue stream and make it one of the app's main ​attractive features, as users actively seek these ​discounts.

The Shop

Butterfly is a social media app, so adding student ​discounts had to be non-intrusive and encourage ​continued use. To address this, I implemented a ​shop where users can browse their favourite ​brands and find discounts they like. The ​branding of this feature also ties into the next Key ​Takeaway, but here, I’ll focus on the student ​discounts.

By partnering with brands and issuing bespoke ​discount codes, users could redeem in-app ​currency for a code. With a single click, users ​receive their code, the brand is informed, and ​the user is directed to the brand's website, ready ​to shop.

Gamification

Convincing users to engage with apps is becoming ​increasingly difficult, with many apps relying on ​hyper-engaging short-form video content as a hook. ​At Butterfly, we decided against building an app ​for endless media consumption.

Instead, we focused on high-quality, consistent ​content that fosters engagement within the university ​community. To maintain this engagement, I ​needed something new: an in-app game economy ​powered by a currency I called Nectar.

Why is this a cycle?

The cycle can start either on the feed or in the shop. If a user sees a discount ​they like in the shop, they are encouraged to post on the feed to earn nectar. ​They can then redeem the discount and return to the feed to share their ​experience.

Badges

Students can also buy badges in the shop to ​express their personalities. These badges ​cost Nectar, providing a reason to use the app ​and spend Nectar even when they aren't ​interested in discounts.

The Global Feed

You'll notice much of my work is inspired by ​video games, and this is another example. ​When considering how to integrate new ​universities into Butterfly without losing its ​unique "single feed for your entire university" ​feature, I remembered the beloved Global Chat ​from Clash of Clans (may it rest in peace). This ​became the solution to our globalization issue.

Butterfly originally had a single feed that ​connected everyone within a university, but this ​hindered app scaling, as new communities had ​to be built from scratch. By creating a separate ​global feed that any student could post to and ​every student could see, I provided new users ​from small communities with immediate ​engagement opportunities while their ​community grew. This also allowed students ​across the UK to connect and network more ​easily. This was an adored new feature.

Development

Overview

I joined Butterfly on the marketing team but quickly realized I could contribute ​significantly to the app's development. Working with a group of 16 students, I led the ​app's development, spearheaded an overhaul, and expanded it to 60 new ​universities. Over six months I:

1. Analyzed the app's current state and identified what was missing for a national ​expansion.
2. Ideated the necessary features to address these points
3. Developed the app according to the design specification
4. Published the app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
5. Managed the database and backend infrastructure throughout the release
   

Technical Challenges

This was my first project using Flutter, and my main challenge was learning how ​to turn our team's ideas into reality with this new tool. I had to quickly master ​Flutter due to the steep learning curve, but within a month, I started working on the ​core features we had planned out.

This project was also my first experience using Google Firebase and Firestore as a ​database. Although I had many years of experience with traditional SQL databases, ​adapting to the NoSQL database in Firestore required me to rethink and modify the ​principles I had learned from relational databases to ensure optimization and cost ​efficiency.

My implementation of the new features that I described earlier, resulted in an ​eightfold increase in user numbers and over 15 minutes more of average daily ​engagement time. Additionally, the new Global Feed and expansion features have ​allowed for over 50 new universities to adopt the app. Finally, since the introduction ​of the new discount and shop features, Butterfly has seen a revenue increase of 400%.

Conclusion

Where is Butterfly today?

Butterfly has recently rebranded into Unidingo and shifted ​focus towards connection over entertainment and gossip. ​Unidingo is currently on the Apple App Store and Google ​Play Store. It has over 16,000 users and is used in over 50 ​universities in the UK. The Unidingo website can be found at ​www.unidingo.com.

What have I learnt?

Before working on the Butterfly app, I was certain that I never wanted to be a ​developer. I had always loved coding, but the thought of building ​applications or services didn't appeal to me. However, after my extensive ​involvement with this app, I've completely changed my mind—now, there's ​nothing I'd rather do.

During this project, I delved deep into the software development life cycle, ​gaining insights into the intricacies of planning, designing, building, and ​maintaining software. I learned how to utilize the Agile/SCRUM ​methodology effectively, which proved essential for adapting quickly to ​changes and ensuring continuous improvement and delivery.

Moreover, this experience taught me the entire process of publishing apps to ​mobile app stores, from the initial idea to the final publication. I also learned ​how to engage with the target audience and foster app growth. These ​skills are not limited to mobile development; they extend to various sectors. I ​explored areas such as content marketing, search engine optimization, ​software debugging, and code testing—all of which are valuable across ​different fields.

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