Backend-Driven UI Architecture for Native iOS Apps
Article Summary
Andrea Scuderi from Just Eat reveals why backend-driven UI can be a double-edged sword. His team ships UI changes without app releases, but the testing complexity nearly broke their workflow.
Just Eat's iOS team adopted a hybrid backend-driven UI approach for their Help module, allowing them to update content and navigation without waiting for App Store approval. This deep dive covers four UI binding patterns (from simple value binding to full code binding) and explains why they chose component binding over alternatives like React Native.
Key Takeaways
- Four patterns explored: value, content, component, and code binding architectures
- Built custom Shock tool to auto-sync production API responses with UI test mocks
- Testing requires coordination across QA, frontend, backend, and design teams
- Component binding enables A/B testing while maintaining native iOS performance
- Backend changes risk breaking production without robust test coverage
Critical Insight
Backend-driven UI cuts time-to-market dramatically but demands significant testing infrastructure and cross-team coordination to avoid production surprises.
