Developing new ways to engage with Trust members and Norwich fans

The Canaries Trust recently has updated its website with lots of new exciting developments in the pipeline. Here, Jake Saterlay, a Software Development Lead, and part of the Trust’s IT team, has taken this opportunity to give everyone an update on the software bits in which the Canaries Trust are currently involved in, mainly speaking about a mobile application he has been developing in the background.

One of the main things the Canaries Trust feels very strongly about is engagement and communication between the fans and the board of our club. We are taking big steps in giving our fans a platform in which they can submit questions to the club in an easier way than currently where the Trust gathers them from various social media platforms and running polls to get fans opinions on current events.

We think a mobile application is a great medium for this, and we have started the work to implement the functionality.

For the tech officianados out there, I have created a project using React Native, and whilst things are in the early stages of development, I have been focusing on implementing a layout to polls and question submissions within the app, as well as getting user submissions stored in the Trust’s backend system.

Once we manage to get a version 1.0 of the mobile app out, it opens a lot of windows from a technical point of view. In my opinion, a dedicated mobile application is a great way to communicate with fans and trust members alike.

This is a project I have found very interesting to work on. In my day job I have dabbled in mobile application development but haven’t yet been able to spend as much time I would like to, diving in to the nitty gritty and building something from the ground up. Having the opportunity to do so, whilst also being involved in my other hobby, Norwich City, is something I really am enjoying.

If you have any suggestions for features you think would fit in to an app, please let us know. We would be very interested to hear what our fans would like in a product like this. Contact us at www.canariestrust.org