Assignment 1 Question 6

Implementation Strategies for Shopping Assistant

I propose for the Shopping Assistant an iterative implementation style as it would be extremely helpful to have a short feedback loop between iterations of the app. Features could be implemented incrementally and ensure that they function as intended before moving on to the next incremental feature.

I would propose something either cloud-based, meaning HTML5 and JavaScript, or something client/server based. The benefit of cloud-based is the cost of porting to other platforms, or rather, that there is no cost. Since HTML5 and JavaScript support are standard on mobile devices now, it means theres only one codebase to maintain for the app.

The benefit of client/server based is that the app would be a native app on the target platform, which can lead to a much more cohesive user experience. The downside is that if you want to support more than one platform, you must maintain separate codebases for each.