Considerations for cross-app use of data / UX

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Use case:

  • I have a telemedicine system for remote covid testing - user app for doing tests, agent app for the call center
  • I have a need to make custom versions of the user app (and later the agent app) - i.e. special features for a region, or an industry application (think airlines using it so their passengers take a test before flying)

So, what are the issues?

  1. when I built the app, I was thinking about ‘speed’ so I tried to avoid using GS columns (to avoid writing back to the sheet)
  2. I ended up using user-specific booleans for some areas - e.g. ‘usc-HasProfile’ is set when the user completes the onboarding process (common to all user apps)

BUT!

  • when I made the 3rd copy of my app, I was initially confused that my existing user account was forced to start from the beginning, and that I had to go through the First Time User screens… again.

Problem:

  • USC columns are user AND app specific

Solution:

  • redo these columns to make them basic columns so the data is available across all user apps
  • do a manual reset of values in GS for some values I can access easily (e.g. column ‘hasProfile’ can be worked out if there is data in a column, so, even though I cannot see the usc toggle without a log of effort, I can do it for 1K users in a few minutes
  • redo the visibility conditions, button logic, computed columns (taking advantage of the ‘Find Uses’ new feature in Glide)

So, it is some work, and it is good to architect around this to avoid the problem - but manageable to fix once you do!

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and a quick video to show how fast it is to bug fix and make changes with the new ‘Find All Uses’ feature is… with the ability to pin these uses to the right side, to then jump straight to the uses in the main screen to the left, and then to so through each use area in turn.

Fantastic! I might be able to have a free weekend soon!

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