Scribbly

The Artist’s Dilemma

Many aspiring artists struggle to establish a consistent practice and often feel isolated in their creative pursuits. Traditional methods of skill-building can lack structure and feedback, leading to frustration and a loss of motivation. Additionally, the fear of judgment or comparison can stifle creativity and prevent artists from experimenting and developing their unique styles. This lack of community and structured guidance often leaves individuals feeling discouraged and unsure of how to progress in their artistic journey.

A Canvas for Connection and Growth

Scribbly addresses these challenges by transforming art practice into a social and engaging experience. The app provides daily prompts that spark inspiration and offer a clear starting point for daily practice. By fostering a supportive community where users can share their work, receive positive feedback, and connect with fellow artists, Scribbly combats isolation and cultivates a sense of belonging. The ability to track progress and reflect on past creations encourages self-assessment and celebrates growth, empowering users to overcome creative blocks and develop confidence in their artistic abilities.

Forging Ahead

Embarking on my first-ever app development project, I teamed up with two friends—a designer and an Android developer—to bring Scribbly to life. Taking charge of the iOS development, I embraced the challenge with enthusiasm, despite my limited experience in backend development at the time.

To prioritize cost-effectiveness, I opted to utilize Firebase's suite of tools. Their Realtime Database served as the primary data store, while the Firebase Storage bucket handled user-generated content. Leveraging the Firebase iOS SDK, I established seamless communication between the app and the backend infrastructure.

This project marked my first venture into iOS app development using UIKit. The learning curve was steep, but I eagerly absorbed the intricacies of creating UITableViews, UICollectionViews, and navigating the imperative nature of UIKit. Along the way, I implemented features like phone verification and custom sign-in, further expanding my skill set. This was also my first experience translating a Figma design into functional Swift code, a valuable lesson in bridging the gap between design and development.

Due to my relative inexperience, the project spanned the entirety of winter break. However, the challenges I faced proved to be invaluable learning opportunities, solidifying my foundation in mobile app development and sparking a passion for building user-centric products.

Refining the Vision

While Scribbly's iOS prototype successfully demonstrated its core concept and potential, I've decided to hold off on releasing it to the App Store due to concerns regarding data privacy and content moderation. However, this project has ignited my passion for further development.

If I were to embark on building Scribbly again, I would adopt a different approach to the backend. Instead of relying on Firebase, I would prioritize creating a custom backend server. This would grant me greater flexibility, control, and customization options to ensure robust data privacy measures and content filtering capabilities.

Additionally, leveraging my newfound proficiency in SwiftUI, I would rewrite the iOS app using this declarative framework. SwiftUI's streamlined syntax and real-time preview functionality would significantly accelerate development, enabling me to iterate on features more rapidly and deliver a polished user experience.

Despite the challenges and lessons learned from this initial endeavor, I remain excited about Scribbly's potential to foster creativity and community. With a refined approach to backend development and a commitment to user privacy and safety, I am confident that a future iteration of Scribbly could flourish as a valuable tool for artists of all levels.