TradeBind Mobile: Senior Design Fall 2025 Progress Update

This fall semester marked a major milestone in the TradeBind journey. As part of my Senior Design capstone at Roger Williams University, our team has been building TradeBind Mobile, bringing the construction union hiring platform to iOS and Android. Here's a deep dive into our progress.

Meet the Team

This project is a true team effort, combining expertise across full-stack development, UX/UI design, and project management:

Our clients are Dr. Amine Ghanem and Prof. Jon Gomes from the Construction Management department, who guide requirements and provide feedback throughout our Agile process.

Project Scope

Our scope covers the full TradeBind platform, not just the mobile app:

• A full-stack web platform for union admins, union workers, and contractors
• A backend system handling authentication and business logic
• A frontend system for dashboards and workflows
• A mobile application (started September 2025) connecting to the same backend

The web platform is already live at tradebind.com with our domain, hosting, and core infrastructure in place. This allows us to test changes end-to-end in a real environment as we iterate.

Background: How the Project Started

TradeBind began as a research fellowship starting in September 2024, which wrapped up in May 2025. The senior design capstone began in September 2025.

The idea came from our clients' ongoing research and conversations with local construction unions. It became clear there was a need for a faster, centralized way to handle job placement and communication.

The Problem We're Solving

Through our research and conversations with local unions, we found that some hiring and placement is still tracked with manual processes, including physical index cards and paper-based records.

Our solution: A centralized digital hiring platform that makes placement faster, more accurate, and easier to coordinate for contractors, union admins, and union workers.

Technical Architecture

Web Frontend

Built with React, TypeScript, and Vite for fast development and optimized builds. Key features include:

• Union admin dashboard for worker management
• Contractor job posting and review workflows
• Worker profile and certification management
• Reusable components for consistent UI as the platform grows

Backend

Our backend stack is Node.js with Express, TypeScript, and MySQL. It handles:

We chose TypeScript because strong typing helps reduce runtime bugs and makes the project easier to maintain as multiple developers contribute.

Database Architecture

The database is designed to answer practical questions quickly:

• Which workers meet a position's requirements?
• What openings exist for a given trade?
• How have placements performed over time?

Hosting Architecture

TradeBind Mobile App

Role Strategy

The web application supports three roles: Union Workers, Contractors, and Union Admins. For mobile, we focused on Union Workers and Contractors, the users most likely to be on job sites needing quick phone access.

Union Admins handle more administrative workflows better suited to the web application's dashboards and forms.

Framework: Expo

We're using Expo, a React Native framework that lets us build for both iOS and Android from one codebase. This matches our timeline and team size while providing a strong set of open-source libraries and tooling.

Requirements

Agile Development Process

Agile fits our team because we meet with our clients regularly and adjust features based on their feedback. We work in short cycles:

This lets us refine the app continuously and avoid building the wrong thing for too long before course-correcting.

Risk Management

• Scope creep: We keep the scope focused on core workflows to maintain simplicity and usability
• Major design changes: We confirm realistic updates with clients and prioritize high-value changes
• Technology failures: We use backup devices, reliable tools, and organized code/deployment processes

Communication

• Weekly client meetings (~1 hour) to review progress, confirm requirements, and collect feedback
• Weekly team meetings after client sessions to plan tasks and align for the week
• Group chat during the week for quick coordination and blocker visibility

Design Process

Our mobile UI design followed a structured progression:

We've built out screens for both Contractor and Worker roles, including job browsing, application management, and profile views.

What's Next: Spring 2026

Next semester, we'll continue iterating on the mobile app and preparing for the final presentation. Key focus areas include:

• Completing the remaining mobile features and polish
• User acceptance testing with real union members
• Performance optimization and bug fixes
• Final demonstration and project documentation