Consumer Software Products
illumineX provides custom mobile app development services for enterprise, government, and venture capital funded startup clients. In our spare time we make fun consumer products, available on the App Store.
Capabilities
illumineX does more than build bespoke mobile apps. Our software developers are primary inventors on several patents in large scale information systems, network security and management, and other areas.
EyeSpy Rebooted
a case study for product redesign
Making consumer mass market software including EyeSpy for macOS keeps a certain set of UX design skills well-honed and exercises creative impulses that are often neglected by "software mill" consulting shops.
When we reimagined EyeSpy, our animated cartoon-eyes mouse-tracking toy, we set three goals for the product: update to a modern technolgoy foundation, gamify an app which doesn't have a game objective, and design for monetization.
Design for Monetization
EyeSpy was redsigned to use Apple's In-App Purchase system to refresh and distribute new artwork in cooperation with professional artists.
Gamification... for the win!
EyeSpy feels playful and fun, even though it doesn’t have an objective. We wanted EyeSpy to be a pleasant distraction, like playing with a rubber band on a phone call.
Technology Modernization
EyeSpy was rebuilt from the ground, up, for the next decade using Swift and modern Cocao API including SpriteKit and CoreAnimation.
iBlogger Refactored
a refactoring case study
llumineX brought iBlogger through the same design, marketing, and engineering re-think process we use to help our clients. The result is an all new product which brings our most reqeusted features to market. Starting over with a clean sheet of paper made that possible for a small team. Our feature backlog doesn't look so daunting, now that we have a solid, modern foundation!
Minimalist UX Design
iBlogger now sports a modern, minimalist interface design, which works well in both Light Mode and Dark Mode, and which provides fluid support for all iPhone and iPad screen sizes. A content-forward mobile blogging experience remains a core product feature, including support for Siri voice transcription for easy creation of blog content.
Monetization
iBlogger previously suffered a bit from being a “spare time” project. iBlogger 3 is available as a free download so people can test out the application with their blog before subscribing to premium features.
Internal Design Refactoring
After a decade on the App Store we refactored the internal design for iBlogger to use modern API including OAuth for secure authentication, and JSON/REST for robust communication between iBlogger and blogging platforms like WordPress, Google Blogger, and other modern CMS systems.
Mobile App Design & Development
In addition to building apps from scratch for Enterprise, Venture Capital funded startups, and government clients, illumineX helps existing teams refactor existing apps, improve development processes, and more. Here are some of the things we can help your team achieve.
Rapid Prototyping
illumineX can reduce your project risk by exploring the hard parts, first, with rapid prototyping of core features.
Greenfield Projects
illumineX can build your app from scratch using rapid prototyping and Agile software development methods.
Build a New Mobile Face for Your Services
We help governments, enterprises, and startups build new mobile interfaces to existing services, for a better, more modern customer experience.
Integration of Mobile App with Existing APIs
Need a mobile app which integrates into your existing business back-office systems? illumineX can integrate with existing APIs or build new APIs to interface in a secure, scalable, robust system.
Gamification
There's an art and a science to making apps a little more fun, for better user experience and engagement. illumineX can help you explore opportunities to gamify your app, and build those features.
Social Media Integration
illumineX can help you design in features which encourage and faciliate mention of your company on social media, directly from your app.
DevOps App Engineering
illumineX teams follow DevOps philosophies and practices to build scalable, robust, and secure enterprise-class application systems from end-to-end. We regularly help organizations migrate from traditional siloed methods to DevOps highly automated continuous integration and delivery of living softare systems.
Migration from Server-hosted to Cloud virtual hosting
illumineX can help you evaluate cloud hosting platforms, modernize your codebase, and redeploy your system on AWS, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, or microservice platforms like Heroku.
Cloud App Development
Our teams can build new cloud-hosted applicatins using modern DevOps infrastructure and processes for your enterprise.
Migrate to CI/CD Pipeline
illumineX can help you automate and modernize your development process for continuous integration and continuous delivery.
App Virtualization
We can help you prepare your application codebase and redeploy existing enterprise applications in virtual environments in your datacenter to improve your system scalability and reliability.
Cloud platform migration
Need to migrate an existing cloud service to a new cloud hosting provider? illumineX thrives on DevOps challenges.
DevOps Transformation & Coaching
illumineX can provide DevOps coaching and lead organizational transformation to establish DevOps processes for your ongoing softwaer development activities.
Modernization & Refactoring
In addition to building apps from scratch for Enterprise, Venture Capital funded startups, and government clients, illumineX helps existing teams refactor existing apps, improve development processes, and more. Here are some of the things we can help your team achieve.
SDK Updates
illumineX can help your team clean up the errors, warnings, and deprecated functions that come with each new update to the host mobile operating system and compiler toolchain. The result is improved app stability and ease of ongoing maintenance.
Automated Unit Testing
You've always wanted to instrument your app core with automated unit testing. We can help design and build tests, or coach your team in test-first programming methods.
Modernize Swift 2 / 3 / 4 codebase to Swift 5
illumineX can modernize an older Swift codebase and refactor to take advantage of modern Swift language features.
Refactor older Objective C codebase to Swift
Do you have a large enterprise app which you're ready to migrate from Objective C to Swift? We can help develop a plan for a Ship of Theseus migration (one module at a time), or build a new app to the existing specification in a grand refactoring.
Performance Tuning
Need some help with iOS performance tuning? We've got Marcel Weiher, who wrote the book on it, on speed dial. Sometimes a bit of refactoring can dramatically improve app performance, leading to better user retention.
Refactor to Native iOS & Android
If your app has outgrown an inital React implementation, illumineX can refactor your app to native iOS and Android stacks for better performance and a richer user experience.
