I craft award-winning apps for Apple products, from mobile banking to augmented reality. I love custom UI/UX, modular app architecture (MVP & VIPER) and subcutaneous testing (TDD/BDD).
My dream is to build apps for animal conservation and environmental organisations like Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund.
Messenger by Meta is one of the biggest communication platforms in the world. I work on a team dedicated to making sure that Messenger is a safe, private and secure place for you to connect with the people who matter. In particular, we've built and delivered Secure Storage to protect your chat history and allow you to access your end-to-end encrypted messages on new devices.
I joined the Message History Experiences team in its infancy and helped drive Secure Storage on Messenger for iOS from proof of concept to company dogfooding. My main contributions to this project involved building UX, prototyping new flows and features, driving promotion campaign work and owning the iOS instrumentation. As a technical lead role in Meta, I continued coordinating work streams across our iOS and Android teams, providing consultation on technical and security initiatives, roadmapping and stakeholder management. I worked very closely with engineering managers, product managers, designers, data scientists and more across organisations within Meta.
As a staff software engineer in the Message History space within Messenger, my contributions oscillate between technical implementations and project execution. I've rebuilt the Secure Storage onboarding experience for Messenger including architectural uplift to support scalability. I also implemented and delivered shared iCloud Drive code libraries for Messenger, Facebook and Instagram, as well as evaluating and integrating additional iCloud-based recovery methods. I've continued to support teams on iOS and Android through workstreams and deadlines to deliver public tests in 2023 ahead of feature global rollout in 2024.
Objective-C, Objective-C++, Hack, VSCode, iOS, UIKit, iCloud Drive, CloudKit, iCloud Keychain, iCloud Key-Value Storage
Xero is beautiful online accounting software designed for small business. Easy to use, Xero uses the best of the web and mobile to allow small businesses to manage their finances anytime, anywhere.
I joined Xero as a senior developer in January 2018 and am loving the work here. I'm part of a very successful mobile team that maintains the suite of Xero apps across iOS. Specifically, I'm one of the frontline programmers focused on keeping track of money going out - this includes functionality related to purchases and bills in the app. My day-to-day routine revolves around implementing new functionality, fixing the more notorious bugs and code reviews for the team.
I'm also the team mentor for iOS graduates and interns, regularly mob programming and setting tasks to teach the ins-and-outs of iOS development to new recruits. My aim for 2018 is to further develop my leadership skills.
I co-presented the first Breakout Session at Xerocon Brisbane 2018, the largest accounting technology conference in Australasia. The 45 minute session, titled Xero Product Roadmap: Helping your clients do beautiful business from anywhere involved a live demonstration of the Xero product, including Siri integration and upcoming features, whilst surrounded by over 3000 delegates on a 360° presentation stage.
Xcode, iOS, MVVM, UI Testing, Localization, Swift, Frameworks, UIKit, PromiseKit
I joined 8i when Holo for iOS was a mere prototype; we delivered a beta program and full-fledged production application to the App Store within 6 months. Holo went on to garner international success with over a million users across 240 countries. It was featured by Apple for the iOS 11 and iPhone X launch, as well as the App Store Best of 2017 Developer category for AR.
I implemented the bulk of the underlying architecture, particularly the authentication (signup, login, forgot password) and session management of the application, push notification services, analytics, media library management and playback, image & video capture preview and social sharing, character preview and details, deeplinking, beta build, settings and more.
I’m individually responsible for researching and championing the placement and interaction logic of Holos with ARKit, which includes point cloud manipulation and novel projection techniques. I also independently handled the design and interaction overhaul to get the app ready for the iPhone X release.
As a mentor, I took on the Summer of Tech 2017-18 internship program, teaching interns over the summer. This involved creating projects, planning tasks, providing teachings and reviewing code.
Xcode, iOS, Swift, VIPER, Authentication, Session Management, Push notifications, Analytics, Photos Framework, Social Frameworks, Deeplinking, Dependency Injection, Dobby, Cocoapods, ARKit
Nov 2017
I started working on-site in the NZ Post Building in 2015 to guide the complete native rebuild of Kiwibank's Mobile Banking app. As the lead iOS developer, I was responsible for building major components and features from the ground up, as well as training up existing developers and new recruits.
My responsibilities included managing the Sush Mobile team working on-site, planning and collaborating with the Kiwibank mobile experts and pushing the boundaries with new innovative technology. I laid the foundation for the VIPER architecture that still supports this app today. I'm responsible for the Touch ID integration, which ultimately supported the current Face ID integration. And I even made sure Apple Watch made it into the new app by spending many late nights prototyping its functionality for stakeholders.
Once the project went live, I started worked together with Kiwibank's brightest to deliver super secret mobile solutions in their Digital Innovation lab.
The app was a finalist for a Best Design award in 2016.
Xcode, iOS, Swift, Touch ID, Apple Watch, VIPER, TDD, BDD, Dependency Injection, Autolayout, Custom UI, Storyboards, XIB, Security Compliance, Session Management
Jul 2016
RefillNZ is an award-winning, grass roots campaign to prevent plastic pollution by making it easier to refill your reusable water bottle on the go than buy water in a single-use plastic bottle.
When RefillNZ kicked off a national campaign in 2019, I volunteered to build an iOS app that matched their online map tool, pro-bono. I started my iOS career building a product that could reveal free water locations around New Zealand, so it was a great way to reinvigorate code I had created over 7 years prior. RefillNZ for iOS has scaled to support their growing number of data points more than tenfold.
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome was building an app that could parse thousands of data points without the use of an API. The app uses Core Data and background contexts to parse KML data in batches locally, then calculates a diff operation to determine how to animate annotations on the visible map. The KML data contains a number of duplicates, so the app also applies some clever heuristics to filter out any double-ups.
iOS, Swift, VIPER, Differentiator, Facebook SDK, Dependency Injection, TDD, BDD, Networking, Agile Development
RealMe Now is a quick and easy way to prove your identity via your mobile phone. Backed by the NZ Government, it is a joint venture between The Department of Internal Affairs and Kiwibank to verify customers bank applications.
After completing work on Kiwibank Mobile Banking for iOS, I joined the Kiwibank Digital Innovation lab in early 2016 to work on a super-secret collaboration between Kiwibank, RealMe and the Department of Internal Affairs. The RealMe Now app uses machine learning and computer vision to analyse and verify identity using facial biometrics. In 2016, this was years before FaceID was introduced to the world.
I am responsible for the foundation of the architecture and the main implementation of the technology, from the end-to-end flow of the initial environment scans through to the upload of data to the server for processing. This included the integration of Daon's IdentityX frameworks, which allow real-time facial recognition to be matched against passport photos. I also integrated the recording component which powers the liveness testing, analysing a user's face in real-time for fraud detection.
The app was decommissioned in 2019.
iOS, Swift, VIPER, Dependency Injection, Machine Learning, Daon, IdentityX, TDD, BDD, Networking, Agile Development
Jul 2016
Everything you need to book your next blood donation appointment in New Zealand and much more. It's saving lives, made easy.
The official New Zealand Blood Service Donor app allows users to book their next whole blood or plasma appointment, search for places to donate, look up donation history and manage appointments.
I was responsible for hiring the development team that delivered the app and its subsequent updates. As a regular donor, I was heavily involved during the design phase, testing, and managed the delivery of various updates including push notifications, messaging for platelet donors and team donation support.
The app was a finalist for a Best Design award in 2016.
iOS, Recruitment, Design Feedback, Prioritisation, Management, Delivery
Nov 2016
My Food Bag is a home delivery service providing quality, free range ingredients together with healthy, seasonal recipes prepared by celebrity cook, Nadia Lim, and her Development Kitchen team.
The official My Food Bag app allows users to manage their My Food Bag recipes and subscriptions. The app supported a wide range of recipes, each with detailed steps, ingredients and quantities. My work on the app involved consulting on the underlying architecture, mitigating production issues, migrating the app's API dependency and adding seasonal themes support. As a team lead, I was responsible for scoping work and managing developers to complete support tasks.
The app was a finalist for a Best Design award in 2016.
iOS, Objective-C, XIBs, Themeing, API migration, Deployment, Code Reviews, Bug Fixes, Support
Sep 2016
As part of Sush Mobile's first Appathon, we set out to create a functioning app in a weekend with one goal: to ship. The resulting product was Choice Bro, your smart choice companion. It enables you to maintain lists of potential choices and picks a suitable next candidate using a clever algorithm.
The app was developed to determine the practicality of a hacking competition within the company, and of course to solve the trivial task of making an 'unbiased' decision, particularly in group scenarios. Despite the fact that the app was never properly promoted, it is trending on a number of design websites and has a cult Facebook following.
The app had a strong focus on aesthetics, capable of cross-blending colours through screen navigation, which was quite a challenge with UIKit.
Core Data, Xcode, Swipe editing, Spring animations, Storyboards, UITableView, iOS, Objective-C, Algorithm Design
May 2015
A series of podcasts and courses with lesson plans for Brazilians wanting to improve their conversational English.
This app was a great opportunity to flex my localisation skills, supporting a full Brazilian Portuguese and English translation. It is powered by Firebase which scrapes an existing podcast blog for new entries. The app uses observers to synchronise podcast publications within a VIPER architecture.
A media playback control is integrated which allows users to stream as well as cache podcasts. Users can view transcriptions while listening to audio.
iOS, Xcode, Localization, Firebase, Swift, VIPER
Jun 2018
Make the Getty yours. Find events and exhibitions you love and add them to your calendar with the free Getty360 app.
Getty360 is an official app of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles. The app features all exhibitions and events at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, from special performances to daily tours, along with information on visiting the two Getty locations.
I worked on this project as a silent iOS contractor, with the design, API and customer interaction handled by another partner. This project provided an interesting challenge, requiring a range of custom UI solutions to meet the design requirements. One particular feature was an interactively-blurred background, at a time when iOS did not yet support blur effects. I managed to pull it off by means of mipmapping, precomputing blurs and interpolating while the user dragged over the screen.
This app was decommissioned in 2019.
iOS, Xcode, Objective-C, Dynamic blurring, Calendar integration, UICollectionView, UITableView, UIWebView, Storyboards, Architecture
Apr 2015
Not everything I build is destined for the App Store. ASB True Rewards was built as an iBeacon product demo for ASB to showcase to stakeholders.
I built the first instalment of ASB True Rewards for iOS. The loyalty app allows ASB True Rewards customers to claim deals at selected outlets across New Zealand using iBeacon technology. This involved devising the system architecture, incorporating a bespoke API with customer authentication and barcode support, integrating mapping tools, push notifications and beacon support.
iOS, Xcode, Core Data, iBeacon, Barcodes, MapKit, Push notifications, Storyboards, UITableView, Objective-C, Session management
Feb 2015
I worked on-site at Inland Revenue in 2014 to deliver myIR Mobile for iOS. As the lead iOS developer and representative of Sush Mobile, I built the application from scratch with a dedicated team of awesome individuals in a tight timeframe. The project was unique as the idea for the app and its design was crowd sourced in a national APP4IR competition.
Integrating New Zealand's tax filing rules into an app is no small feat - I experienced regular strict security auditing to guarantee a trustable app. My main responsibilities included the bulk of the programming work; collaborating with designers, business analysts and testers; guiding decisions in an agile environment to deliver New Zealand's first government tax filing app.
This app was featured on various media channels, including Computer World, PCWorld, National, BizEdge NZ, Scoop and Idealog.
The app was decommissioned in November 2016.
Session management, Xcode, iOS, Objective-C, Core Data, Security auditing, UITableView, Storyboards, Keychain, SSL Pinning
Jan 2015
Kiwibank's Home Hunter for iOS is the swiss army knife of the New Zealand housing market. It allows you to search for homes and properties, view estimated price ranges, get conditional pre-approval for home loans and more. To leverage mobile technologies, the app supports augmented reality to find homes for sale nearby and a handy Sun Finder to determine sun exposure during the year.
As part of my initiation into Sush Mobile, I took over maintenance of Kiwibank Home Hunter early 2014. This involved communicating with business partners, collaborating with designers and testers to deliver ongoing updates to the app. These updates included the fixing of bugs and implementation of new features.
The app was decommissioned in September 2016.
iOS, Xcode, Augmented reality, OpenGL, UITableView, App deployment
Jan 2014
Waterboy is the coolest way of keeping up with local sport. It connects people with local and mainstream games. It works from the sideline, and everywhere else too. It allows you to broadcast sports, comment, share photos and kick off a new way of social sport interaction.
I am a cofounder of Sideline Junkies Ltd, a startup company of talented individuals and sport personalities who shared a passion for sport. I served as the lead app developer, working alongside various All Blacks and sport celebrities. I am the maker of Waterboy for iOS, responsible for the design and development of the entire app.
The app was decommissioned in March 2016.
iOS, Xcode, Objective-C, Location services, Networking, Real-time updating, Core Data, UITableView, MapKit
May 2013
Areo is a Dunedin based company that specialises in photogrammetry and 3D simulations. Their technology enables you to capture images from drone, helicopter or aircraft and create fabulous maps, 3D terrain and other products ready for analysis.
Using Areograph 2.0 technology, I was actively involved in manipulation of 3D point cloud data for the reconstruction of various large scale scans, including train stations, race cars, museum exhibitions, mining excavation sites and more. Aside from building 3D models and animations, I also helped develop tools to facilitate point cloud manipulation for Areo's in-house software, currently incorporated into AreoHawk.
Area picked up its second United Nations World Summit Award for its innovative use of technology in the industry.
C++, Blender 3D, Python, point cloud manipulation, OpenGL, Qt
Sep 2013
The Otago Settler's Museum was undergoing renovations and had to take down their Smith Gallery (which held over 400 portraits of Otago Settlers). So Areograph created a virtual version of the Smith Gallery in a touch-screen booth before it was taken down.
The Otago Settler's exhibition was a challenging project to digitise. The original photos of the exhibition hall featured a set of dividers affixed to highly reflective narrow posts. The ceiling also contained rotating fans and fine details that were difficult to capture. I was actively involved in reconstruction of 3D point cloud data and the mapping of interactive content to geometry. Aside from building 3D models and animations, I also helped develop projection tools to facilitate the placement of geometry points to reconstruct scenes.
The experience was ultimately packaged as a touch-screen booth, running on Mac Mini hardware embedded inside the booth.
C++, Areograph, Blender 3D, Python, Point cloud manipulation, OpenGL, Qt
Mar 2011
Casebook is a crime scene investigation game series, developed for Windows and distributed online as digital episodic content. Based on Areograph 1.0 technology, the player becomes a forensic investigator and explores photorealistic crime scenes with Detective Burton.
I was initially hired as an intern to develop mini games for the series; I quickly took on a role as a software developer, implementing new features and maintaining the existing code base.
We released 3 episodes and a demo through Mumbo Jumbo, Big Fish Games, Lace Mamba and Amazon Digital Download in various languages. We picked up various accolades internationally including a United Nations World Summit Award and Best Independent Adventure Game Award.
C++, LUA, ActionScript, OpenGL shaders, Engine maintenance, Implementing new features, Minigame design & development, Internationalisation, Testing, Graphic design and 3D modeling
Nov 2008