The ambition was to create an application that would be secure, fast, smooth, intuitive, and extremely easy to use for people of all technical abilities, whilst being able to scale as its customers grow and evolve. 

Many of Prime Systems’ customers have outdoor sites, sometimes with no or poor mobile signal, such as holiday parks and marinas, so it was important the app was built to work offline, and would go on to connect with the main system as soon as it was back in signal range. 

Bespoke solutions are at the heart of Prime Systems’ business, so it was only natural that its accompanying mobile app would be built dynamically in order to be tailored to its customers needs with an adaptable checklist function, and easily adaptable modules. 

Ultimately, the new Prime Systems mobile app had to be an industry-leading system that would make maintaining compliance and high standards of health and safety easy for businesses, helping them keep spaces and places safe for the public and their staff.

A strategic approach

The team at Propel Tech worked closely with Prime Systems to completely understand its aspirations for the app, whilst getting under the skin of the users’ and the challenges they would face, such as limited technical abilities, poor signal, and unique issues related to their specific roles and businesses. 

The technical team at Propel Tech team then conceived an app that would: 

• Interface seamlessly with the existing back-end system 
• Work effectively offline - and quickly sync to the main system once the device was back within internet signal 
• Could be tailored inline with customers’ unique business requirements and trends 
• Be easy and enjoyable to use
• Be easy to support when problems emerged

Interfacing seamlessly with the existing back-end system

Propel Tech built the app in React Native to enable efficient, secure, and scalable backend integration. It seamlessly integrated with APIs, allowing for easy data exchange, efficient querying and real-time data updates.

What’s more, React Native allowed the app to be deployed on both iOS and Android to allow staff with different devices to utilise the app whilst delivering consistent backend communication across platforms.

Work effectively offline

React Native was also the framework of choice due to its ability to efficiently manage local storage and provide a seamless user experience, even without internet connectivity, allowing staff to log crucial health and safety data on the go.

Ability to be tailored inline with customers’ unique business requirements and trends

The app has been created to allow customers to define their own questionnaires and checklists, and works dynamically to handle any questions and different types of actions, such as adding photos, signatures, dates and times. Its component-based architecture and JavaScript framework is perfect for Prime Systems’ customers that have unique and evolving risk management requirements in a fast moving health and safety regulation landscape.  

Importantly, the app can be completely tailored to trends and business's unique risk management needs, such as the hot-tub management app that was developed for Away Resorts, a UK holiday park operator with 27 parks across the UK.

Away Resorts has more than 250 hot tubs across its estate which all need to be tested twice a day to ensure chemical levels, temperature and cleanliness are maintained. Previously, this was all recorded on paper, meaning the records were open to the elements and quick to accumulate, taking up valuable archive space.

The Prime System mobile app allows the user to scan a unique hot tub QR code on their smartphone and input all the relevant details. This information is then monitored in real-time so any issues are alerted to the relevant people quickly, minimising the risk of human error and streamlining the whole process. As the app works offline, it is not a problem if there is no wifi available at the time of testing, as the data is downloaded as soon as the smartphone connects.

Easy and enjoyable to use

The developers and designers at Propel Tech knew that robust planning would be the secret to its success. Before any work started the team gathered to plan the functionality and UX before taking any further steps to develop the app. 

It was designed in Figma, the web-based design and prototyping tool primarily used for interface design, where screens were laid out for the team and the client to review and sign off. 

Figma was chosen due to its powerful planning functionality and ability to support real-time collaborative design where multiple team members could work on the same design simultaneously, making it easier to gather feedback and make changes in real time whilst maintaining consistency.

Figma’s prototyping capabilities allowed the developers to simulate the user experience and facilitate testing to gain valuable insights from a cohort of existing Prime Systems clients. This gave the developers the opportunity identify any performance issues and address UI feedback.

Aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly design

Prime Systems has recently undergone a rebrand, so the designers were able to follow the fresh and new brand guidelines to create an aesthetically pleasing look for the app. 

It was particularly important to keep the app interface looking simple and uncluttered with a minimalist, simple palette to make it easy for people of all technical abilities and experiences to navigate.

Be easy to support when problems emerged

Due to the variety of technical abilities across the user base, it was important that the developers could help users' capture and explain issues, particularly in the risk management sector where the operation of the app is critical in keeping people safe. 

The developers at Propel Tech used LogRocket, a comprehensive front-end application monitoring solution, to help them understand and resolve issues in web applications. By capturing detailed logs of user interactions, it provides developers with a clear, actionable view of how users experience their applications. LogRocket has the ability to record and playback user sessions, allowing developers to see exactly what users were doing when they encountered a problem, eliminating guesswork, as developers can observe the steps leading up to an issue firsthand.

Results

Since its launch in early 2024, the app has already transformed operations for 200 of Prime Systems’ users. As the business onboards clients on an ongoing basis, it anticipates the app will be adopted by 100% of its customers. 

Everybody that has used the app to date reports that it has saved them significant time with manual data entry, streamlining their day-to-day risk management operations and reducing the need for outdated and unsustainable paper-based solutions that are much more susceptible to human error. 

Jason Ward, Waterside Manager at Aquavista Watersides Ltd, says:

Before Prime, our health and safety systems were mostly paper-based and time-consuming, and we had trouble tracking the information. The new Prime Systems app has been a game changer for us.”

This is just the beginning…. The mobile app has been built in such a way that it will evolve and scale in line with our own and our clients’ businesses and changing needs, particularly in the ever-changing compliance landscape. Moving forward, the team at Prime Systems will introduce further modules to make it a single place for on-the-go health and safety reporting.

Multi-lingual from day one

As Prime Systems’ international customer base is growing, it was important that the app could be easily adapted to other languages. 

The React Native framework is highly effective for translating mobile apps into other languages due to its robust support for internationalisation and localisation. It also supports the integration of third-party translation services and tools, enabling efficient management and collaboration on translations. 

Read more about our mobile app development services.