How I built a hair pro appointment booking mobile app 📲

Kelvin Graddick · 1 minute read ·

Cooking up on another mobile app called ‘Cut Corners’! I coded this a while back using C# using the cross-platform Xamarin framework.

Cut Corners helps potential clients find stylists in their area based on detailed criteria. 📲

I am developing this for a client who has great experience in the hair pro industry as an entrepreneur, and it’s looking to forward that with this new application.

Xamarin (cross-platform app development framework)

Xamarin is a cross-platform app development framework that allows developers to create native applications for Android, iOS, and Windows using a single codebase.

It helped me save a lot of time in developing the application quickly for both iOS/Android.

Today, Xamarin is end-of-life and is being replaced by .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI). Going forward I will likely need to migrate, or re-write the app into .NET MAUI if it requires more changes.

Tech Stack

To avoid reinventing the wheel, I forked a lot of the back-end/API logic from a previous/similar app I built. This consists of a MySQL database/tables, and simple PHP scripts. The PHP scripts are basically endpoints that expose the data layer for querying and mutation.

Here’s the tech stack summary:

Xamarin (mobile app code / logic)
PHP (web-API)
MySQL (database)
Windows Server (web server)
Google Cloud Platform (cloud hosting)

If I had to change some things, I'd probably use Node.js for the web-API, and Nginx + Linux for the web server.

Design

Over the years I’ve learned that as a developer having some basic PhotoShop skills helps move things along when you don’t have the resources for a UI/UX. The owner provided the Cut Corners logo but I was able to modify it to work better in the app. I often use ‘Canva’ when I can instead of PhotoShop since it’s easier/free.

I used Canva to create the apps buttons, icons, and other imagery. For this app, I went for a more minimalist style.

Conclusion

Can’t wait to get the app finally released for the owner very soon...have to do a few things first.

Let me know if you have any questions about the app, the technology used, or if you have any tips/feedback.

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