Week 1 Building BeBetter: From Idea to First Native iOS Iteration

Week 1 Building BeBetter: From Idea to First Native iOS Iteration

By bacigalupotomas@gmail.com•

This first week of building BeBetter was all about focus, speed, and foundations.

Instead of trying to do everything at once, we made a clear decision:
build one feature really well, natively, with a clean and simple experience.

One Core Feature

Our entire first iteration revolves around a single action:

Upload a video and receive feedback.

That’s it.

We believe that if this experience feels fast, intuitive, and valuable, everything else can be layered on top later. So we designed the app around removing friction and getting users to their first video analysis as quickly as possible.

Full Native iOS, Clean by Design

We went all-in on a fully native iOS app using SwiftUI.

Why?

  • Better performance
  • Cleaner animations
  • System-consistent UI
  • A more “Apple-like” experience overall

The interface is intentionally minimal. No noise. No unnecessary steps. Every screen exists to support the core flow.

Simple Onboarding, Straight to Value

Onboarding is short and purposeful.

We only ask what we truly need:

  • How much you ski each season

After that, users jump directly into their first video upload and analysis. No long forms, no tutorials blocking progress — value first.

Early Feature Streams That Came Naturally

While focusing on the main flow, some feature ideas surfaced almost organically:

  • Viewing other people’s videos
  • Discovering and finding people you already know inside the app

These weren’t forced into the first iteration, but they’re clear next steps that align naturally with the product.

Account & Identity

We implemented flexible authentication from day one:

  • Apple Sign In
  • Google Sign In
  • Email Sign In

Users can also:

  • Edit their username

Simple, familiar, and frictionless.

Web First, Native Next

To move fast without compromising quality, we followed a hybrid development approach:

  1. Prototype and validate features in a “vibe-coded” Next.js web app
  2. Once the flow feels right, rebuild it properly in SwiftUI

This allowed us to:

  • Iterate quickly
  • Validate UX decisions early
  • Keep the native app clean and intentional

The iOS app connects directly to our existing web app API, so we’re building on top of a solid backend from day one.

What This Week Was Really About

This week wasn’t about scale, polish, or edge cases.

It was about:

  • Focus over features
  • Native quality over shortcuts
  • Getting users to value as fast as possible

BeBetter is just getting started, but the foundation is set.

Next: refine the feedback experience, deepen the analysis, and start building the social layer around it.

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