Mobile · 2025
PELICAN
- Year
- 2025
- Scope
- Mobile · Client
- Role
- Frontend Developer
- Team
- Team of 3
- Stack
- FlutterFlow, Flutter, Dart
- Status
- Completed
Attendance app built in FlutterFlow, a first freelance project.
An attendance application built in FlutterFlow by a three-person freelance team, taken on immediately after the DPR RI internship ended. It was the first paid project and the first time working in FlutterFlow.
PELICAN is an attendance application, taken on as a freelance job immediately after the DPR RI internship ended in December 2024. It was the first paid project, built by a team of three: a designer, a backend developer, and a frontend developer.
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The team built it in FlutterFlow rather than writing Flutter by hand. That was also a first: coming in with Flutter experience but none in FlutterFlow, the tool had to be learned in two days before the build could start.
Working in a visual builder turned out to be a different discipline from writing Flutter directly. FlutterFlow is more rigid, and some designs could not be reproduced exactly as intended; the constraint had to be worked around rather than argued with.
Brief
Problem
The client needed an attendance application, and the team had to deliver it on a low-code platform none of them had used before.
Solution
Learn FlutterFlow in two days on existing Flutter knowledge, then build the frontend inside the tool's constraints rather than fighting them.
My role
- 01
Built the application frontend in FlutterFlow as one of three people, alongside a designer and a backend developer
Architecture
- Front end
- FlutterFlow, Flutter, Dart
Challenges
- 01
Problem
The build had to happen in FlutterFlow, a tool nobody on the team had used, with no time budgeted for learning it.
Solution
Self-taught the platform in two days, leaning on existing Flutter knowledge to shorten the ramp.
- 02
Problem
A visual builder is more rigid than hand-written Flutter, and some intended designs could not be reproduced exactly.
Solution
Worked within what the platform allowed and adjusted the implementation rather than forcing the tool past its limits.
Lessons
- 01
Low-code platforms trade flexibility for speed. Knowing Flutter shortened the learning curve, but it did not remove the ceiling the visual builder imposes on design.