Finishing TradeBind and Handing It Over

On May 5, 2026, our team gave the final TradeBind presentation. It closed a project that began as a research fellowship in September 2024, grew into my senior capstone, and eventually became a connected web, mobile, API, and database platform for construction union hiring.

From Research Idea to Client Handoff

TradeBind started with a practical problem: union hiring and job placement still depend on slow, manual processes. Contractors need qualified workers quickly, workers need a clear way to find and apply for opportunities, and union administrators need current information about availability and certifications.

I joined the research project first and built the early structure and platform direction. Connor Hardin joined about a month later and expanded the full-stack development. Cassidy Methot joined when the senior capstone began in September 2025 and led the mobile UX and UI work. Our clients, Dr. Amine Ghanem and Prof. Jon Gomes, met with us throughout the process to review requirements and guide the product.

What We Delivered

The handoff was much larger than a single application. The finished project is a shared ecosystem with role-specific workflows:

The Final Spring Release

Spring 2026 was about turning a broad prototype into a more complete product. We connected the remaining web and mobile workflows and added features that made the platform feel like one system instead of several separate interfaces.

• Push notifications with unread badge counts on iOS and Android
• Deep links that open shared job positions directly in the mobile app
• Application decisions for the full worker-to-contractor review flow
• Interview scheduling with Zoom interview management
• Dark and light themes across web and mobile with synchronized preferences
• Offline support through response caching and clear connectivity feedback
• Worker search with reviews and certifications for contractors
• Updated marketing pages with refreshed branding and contact forms

One Backend, Three Roles, Two Interfaces

One of the most important architectural decisions was keeping the business logic in a shared REST API. The React and TypeScript website and the Expo mobile app both use the same Node.js and Express backend. That gave us one place to enforce validation, role permissions, and workflow rules.

Security was part of the architecture, not a final checkbox. We used JWT sessions, role-based access, route guards, rate limits on authentication flows, HTTPS, security headers, a CORS allowlist, and access, error, and database logging. The goal was a system that could be maintained and reasoned about after the original developers stepped away.

Designing With the Clients, Not Around Them

The mobile design began on paper. Over roughly five weeks, the team produced 26 sketches and reviewed them in weekly client meetings. We revised navigation, screen structure, and even color choices before moving the strongest ideas into Figma and then into React Native.

That process reinforced a lesson I will carry into future work: early feedback is much cheaper than polished rework. A paper screen is easy to replace. A completed feature tied into navigation, API calls, state, and tests is not.

Testing the Workflows

Our usability plan covered 30 participants: 10 members of the general public, 10 contractors, and 10 union workers. We created role-specific task sheets to measure whether users could complete important actions and how much assistance they needed. We also prepared a post-session System Usability Scale rubric and open feedback questions.

The useful part was not simply asking whether someone liked a screen. It was observing whether they could find applications, create projects and positions, and make candidate decisions without being coached through the interface.

What Handoff Actually Means

A project handoff is not just sending a folder and walking away. It is reducing how much the next person needs the original team in order to understand the system. For TradeBind, that meant leaving behind the working applications, a clear architecture, testing artifacts, deployment and infrastructure context, and documentation for the clients.

It also meant making a clean personal transition. TradeBind shaped a large part of my college experience, but graduation was the right point to close my role on the project and let the next phase belong to the client.

What I Am Taking With Me

• Architecture matters most when a project outlives its builders. Clear boundaries make a handoff possible.
• Role-based software needs role-based testing. A contractor, worker, and administrator do not experience the same product.
• Client feedback is part of development. Regular review kept the work connected to the real problem.
• Shipping includes documentation. Code that only its authors understand is not truly ready to transfer.
• Projects need an ending. Calling a phase complete creates space for both the product and its developers to move forward.

You can see the live platform at tradebind.com. For the earlier development story, read How I Built TradeBind and the Fall 2025 mobile progress update.