Build Journey
I Took a Design Handoff and Had a Working iPhone App the Same Day
August 3: the iPhone and Watch app, on live data.
The Ford family · Josh, dad and builder of FamilyOrganization.app, writing up his build journey
Published Updated 1 min read
On August 3 I built the iPhone and Apple Watch app from a design handoff, on the live database instead of mock data: 63 files and about 8,900 lines.
The database changes were additive. I added tables for household settings, displays, family members, calendars, calendar events, routines (then called task blocks) and to-dos, all guarded by the same household-membership check, so a paired TV gets the same access a person does.
I kept family members separate from accounts, because some people in a family, like a young child, don't have one. And I made repeating lists reset the next day, while a one-off task stays done.
Built on August 3, 2026 (commit f6e00e4). Written up on October 2, 2026 from my commit history.