Behind the Curtain of Field Nation’s Mobile App Improvements
July 25, 2023
July 25, 2023
Dedicated to continuous improvement, Field Nation’s mobile app experience team has been hard at work on updates that include engineering, UX, product, speed, and security improvements. Read about these product highlights from the people who made it possible.
![]() Tashfiqul Islam |
SpeedA little technical background: Field Nation has been around since 2008, and our first mobile apps were released in 2015. Not surprisingly, mobile development has changed a lot since then! While we’ve released regular updates to our mobile apps over the past eight years, the foundation of our mobile apps left us with some technical constraints. In the Spring of 2022, we rounded up some of our best engineers and set out to change the core of how these apps functioned, so they would be more scalable in the future. That change has allowed us to slowly but surely improve loading times across the apps. We hope you’ve noticed significant performance improvements from features like “on my way” and the “work order list.” On our side, tracking indicates that app load times have improved by 75%.
Finding WorkWe want to make it as easy as possible for providers to find and complete work. I’m here to make the “finding work” part easier, among other things.
💡Tech tip: Sort your work orders by schedule, pay, distance, or number of requests. |
![]() James Droske |
In-app messagingWe understand the importance of quick and efficient communications. And, to be honest, our old “Messages” tab wasn’t as useful as it could be. So, we made a few upgrades:
NotificationsNotifications: based on the survey I sent out, you all seem to have a love/hate relationship with these. These findings helped us learn that there wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to changing notifications, so we put you in the driver’s seat instead:
💡 Tech tip: not happy about getting too many new work notifications? Head over to your notification settings and create a filter so you don’t receive notifications for work orders that don’t meet your minimum hourly rate or distance requirements! |
![]() Ben Moormeier |
SecurityPrivacy and security are critical to maintaining trust on our marketplace. After joining Field Nation last year, I got to work right away in partnership with team members in Product and Engineering. We recently enabled one-time passwords (OTP), which are passcodes sent to your mobile device or email when your account is accessed from a new device. While this can add friction when you use a different phone or computer, it helps protect your account, privacy, and earnings. |
![]() John Shaw |
InsuranceWe know insurance for on-site work is complicated — there’s a ton of jargon and it can be difficult to procure insurance without an LLC. In January, we introduced Occupational Accident Insurance (OAI) as optional coverage for providers. OAI provides injury protection to providers and service company-managed providers in the event of an on-site injury. For providers who opt-in, this fee covers all work orders you do on the Field Nation platform. OAI is a 1% fee applied per completed work order, and Field Nation does not profit from this fee. For work orders in which buyers cover a majority of the cost for OAI, this fee is reduced to .5%. You can learn more about OAI in our Help Center. |
![]() Lynsay White |
Timely PaymentsOkay, so this isn’t technically an improvement to the mobile apps, but we think it’s just as exciting. We continue to make changes to the buyer experience to decrease the time between work being marked “done” and getting approved by buyers, so stay tuned for more improvements. |
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