Tomek Wiśniewski brings a wealth of experience to the Branchspace team. Having previously played a key role in developing MojeZdrowie24, a leading Polish health app, Tomek is now contributing to the Triplake platform. He's passionate about building user-friendly and impactful mobile applications and is deeply involved in shaping the future of digital travel. Recently, he was a key contributor to a groundbreaking IATA PoC that successfully demonstrated the potential of a fully digital travel experience.
On His Role at Branchspace
"My role in Branchspace is Mobile Apps Developer. I am responsible for the mobile platform, which is a part of the Triplake suite," Tomek explains. "Given that Branchspace's goal is to revolutionize the way we experience travel, and putting customers first is inscribed into the very core of our company, from the first day here my mission is to develop mobile applications targeted for air travellers and having best of breed customer experience."
When asked about what attracted him to join Branchspace, Tomek reveals his foundational motivation: "From the very start of my career, I was interested in developing solutions that will have a positive impact on many human lives, potentially on a global scale. It is a fundamental truth of business ethics that people are more important than things, and I always wanted to serve others with my skills to improve people's lives in some aspect, make their lives easier or happier, or hopefully both."
The Journey to Mobile Development
Tomek's passion for mobile development stems from a desire to create useful tools for people. "It is said that there are almost 9 million mobile apps in the world, and an average smartphone user has got 40 apps installed on his mobile device," he notes. "These figures clearly show that mobile phones have seamlessly integrated into the lion's share of our daily lives."
His journey began in his early teens, writing his first lines of code. "I came across a PDF tutorial with basics of native Android development. Then I came up with an idea of developing my first own Android application allowing to easily count combinatorial formulas I needed to use during Maths lessons in high school," he recalls. "What began originally as playing with Android to solve problems I encountered, blossomed into a passion for building mobile applications for the general public."
Current Trends in Mobile Development
When discussing exciting trends in mobile development, Tomek highlights three key areas:
- Cross-platform Development: "Nowadays, many businesses need to reduce time-to-market while still ensuring presence for both Android and iOS. Cross-platform frameworks allow developers to write one codebase covering both user interface and business logic, that is reused across multiple platforms."
- Artificial Intelligence: "In the context of AI as a part of mobile apps for airlines, I can see its strongest potential in fostering customer-centricity by analysing traveller's behaviour and then suggesting travel destinations, activities, and other perfectly matching services based on this data."
- Mobile Wallet Apps: "For aviation specifically, a set of boarding pass, e-passport and facial expression stored in mobile wallet and shared with airport in advance of a flight has got a power to navigate the passenger through airport processes smoothly without a need to show physical version of these documents repeatedly."
Contributing to Better Travel Experiences
At Triplake, Tomek's work focuses on recognizing and fulfilling customer needs through automation and real-time information delivery. "If a mobile app's architecture is clean, well-thought and organised, it helps to ensure scalability and let developers quickly respond to all expectations airlines and their customers have," he explains.
The IATA Proof of Concept
One of Tomek's recent achievements was his involvement in IATA's Proof of Concept for a fully digital travel experience. The project focused on Digital Admissibility to Travel, developing a mobile app for Cathay Pacific Airline with cutting-edge capabilities.
"What I personally most like about this part is that passengers do not have to input even one character while going through booking and checking flow - all is shared from mobile wallet apps using secure implementations," Tomek shares. The system allows for a contactless experience at airports, where passengers can be processed through security and boarding using just facial recognition and digital credentials.
Advice for Aspiring Mobile Developers
For those starting their journey in mobile development, Tomek emphasizes the importance of understanding both Android and iOS platforms: "While developing sophisticated cross-platform mobile apps, sooner or later there will always come a moment when this insight into how things work natively will be useful or even inevitable."
He concludes with wisdom gained from experience: "From nature I am never satisfied with making some high-level invocations that work, I always strive for getting an insight into how it works under the hood, and I would advise to never miss this opportunity, as it will pay off abundantly during daily work with mobile apps."
Watch the full episode.
