PayPal 4.5 to 5.0

PayPal 5.0 (project “Hawaii Five-O”) was an aggressive reimagining of the digital wallet. I was the architectural lead on two key features, the Wallet tab and the Shop tab. These features were driven by what we learned on the 8-Ball prototype project, and built using my “MVC = Core Data + Storyboards + KVO” design pattern.

One of my proudest contributions was the Auto Check-in feature. That feature was not spec’d, but I just plowed it in on my own and the execs (David Marcus, Hill Ferguson and others) were pleasantly surprised. Basically you could mark a merchant as a favorite, and then the app would set up a geofence around them using Location Services in iOS. So, say you frequently stop at your local Starbucks for coffee. The PayPal app will notify you that you’re close to that merchant, and give you the opportunity to check-in for automatic payment with a single swipe. On the backend, using PayPal Here, this lets the barista know you’re a PayPal customer—which saves everyone time.