App for the country’s first broadcasting platform
Youbahn is like Uber for work: through the app and the website, students aged 17 to 30 can respond to short-term shifts for today or tomorrow. The company does not employ intermediaries, within the on-demand staffing platform technology must solve everything. Youbahners have a zero-hour contract, where they accumulate vacation pay and can report sick. The greater the demand for work, the more they earn per hour.
Pinch’s first Flutter app
The Youbahn app has a special place in our hearts: it was our first Flutter app. With this framework from Google, developers can simultaneously and with one codebase develop apps for both iOS and Android. This allows apps to be built quickly and affordably. We had already gained experience with Flutter during hackathons, where two developers managed to rebuild the Picture Share app to 80 percent in just two days, resulting in a well-functioning app that looked excellent on both platforms. The potential of Flutter was clear, the search was for a company that dared to take on the challenge with us.
Youbahn app: limited budget, developed quickly
In Youbahn, we found the ideal partner: the app of this start-up within an existing organization had to be developed quickly and on a limited budget. Ultimately, the Flutter application was realized by us within twelve man-weeks, with native development it would have been sixteen man-weeks. Another major advantage of Flutter: changes in the Youbahn app only need to be made once for both platforms, so further development and maintenance are also much cheaper.
Functionalities of the app
The app not only facilitates finding and booking shifts, but also administrative matters such as hours administration and payment. Youbahners can set filters for, for example, hourly rate and distance. Through push notifications, shifts can be brought to attention in the morning. The app builds a small portfolio, where both employer and employee can give each other a rating and review. Youbahners also get scores for how often they have worked where. Employers can select based on all these statistics if there are more applications than vacancies.
Almost continuous development
The app has been in the app stores since January 2020, and since then we have been continuously developing it. For example, we developed a skills passport named Skills ID, which allows people to be matched with certain positions thanks to specific skills. Later, we added a timesheet functionality, many more filter options, and the rating system. We have also (for the third time) made a brand style adjustment – where Flutter excels since you can implement major design changes very quickly.
From large supermarkets to flash delivery services
From a development perspective, the Youbahn app is a great success: despite some hiccups and learnings during the development process as it was a new framework, we were able to create an app that would not have been better with native development. The app is also commercially successful. Numerous companies within the hospitality, events, retail, healthcare, logistics, and office support sectors offer shifts. Thanks to the application we developed, large supermarket chains were able to handle the Christmas peak in their distribution centers, and many a flash delivery rider is now cycling around.
The YouBahn app was developed in collaboration with Node1 and NoProtocol.
