This week we shipped the biggest project in Fenway Web’s history: five native apps for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, built for five very different brands. They are Boston Made, Paxton, GrandStrand, Spot Check and BOSSTOX. Here is how we approached it, and what it means if you are thinking about an app of your own.
One foundation, five personalities
Each brand already had a strong website, so the first rule was that every app had to look and feel like its site. A reader moving between the GrandStrand website and the GrandStrand app should never feel a seam. Under the hood, the five apps share a single Swift foundation for feeds, offline saving, article rendering and layout. On top of that, each app gets its own colors, typography, navigation and native features.
That shared core is why we could build five apps at once without cutting corners. A fix or improvement to the reader, the image pipeline or the offline cache lands in all five at the same time.
Native where it counts
- iPhone: fast native feeds, a clean reader view and saved stories that work offline.
- iPad: real iPad layouts, not stretched phone screens. Magazine grids for Boston Made, side-by-side research for Paxton and big maps for Spot Check and GrandStrand.
- Apple Watch: a companion app for every brand, from GrandStrand’s Coast Now weather and tides to BOSSTOX research at a glance.
- Privacy: none of the five apps collects personal data. There are no accounts, no tracking and nothing to sign up for.
Public beta open on TestFlight · App Store review pending
Five apps. Every screen.
Real screens from the Boston Made app family, on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and the iPhone Duo.
Coming soon
Built for iPhone Duo.
Every app in the family is coming to Apple’s new foldable. Open it, and each app spreads into a two-pane layout: the feed on one side, the story on the other.
Version 1.0 · Submitted to the App Store · Launching soon
The five apps
Real screenshots from every app on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Boston Made
The whole Boston Made family in one calm feed.
Today’s stories from across the network, saved for offline reading, with a shop of thousands of products on the way.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Free
Paxton
Healthcare insight, analyzed.
Healthcare deals, markets and policy in plain English, with a healthcare marketplace on the way.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Free
BOSSTOX
Markets and the AI build-out.
Live market quotes, plain-English BOSSTOX research and headlines, with in-app stock trading on the way.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Free
GrandStrand
The coast, connected.
Live Myrtle Beach weather and tides, a map of the whole Grand Strand and what’s happening today, with local restaurants, venues and real-estate partners joining soon.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Free
Spot Check
Every spot has a story.
Parking near you, local parking guides and saved spots, with thousands of LAZ Parking spaces coming to the app.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Free
Up next in the family
Built to grow
A launch is a starting line. The apps are built to take on new features: a healthcare marketplace in Paxton, in-app trading in BOSSTOX, thousands of LAZ Parking spaces in Spot Check, a shop in Boston Made and local partners in GrandStrand. Lumo and PUPWEAR® are next on our bench.
Thinking about an app?
If your business has a website people love, it can have an app people keep. We design and build native apps for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch that match your brand, and we stay on to maintain them. Talk to us about an app.
