Casebook
2016
a regional radio station
Positive Life Radio
§ I
The Problem
Positive Life Radio streamed online, but only through a mobile browser that was unreliable on iOS and could not play in the background. To grow listener engagement, they needed a real app, on iPhone and Android, that could stream reliably and surface local station info wherever a listener was.
§ II
What We Built
One app, native on both platforms
On a single-app budget, we wanted each version to look and feel native rather than a port. We built it on a cross-platform JavaScript stack and shipped a true iOS app on iPhone and a true Android app on Android, pulling dynamic content from a customized version of their site.
Local by GPS
Streaming was the headline, but we used GPS and their CMS to show the right local frequency, call letters, news, and events for any region in Washington. We built them a backend tool to assign stations and feeds by zip code, no developer required.
An alarm clock that wakes you up
Late in the project they asked for an integrated alarm. iOS and Android both fight timed events when an app is closed, so we wrote custom extensions to make the stream wake you up, with an interactive notification if the app was shut. Then we added snooze.
§ III
The Outcome
We shipped Positive Life Radio its first official native app, on both platforms at once, and a first revision soon after. A station that used to cut out on iOS became something people set as their alarm.