Order History Screen: Cursor Pagination, WebSocket, Deep Linking

Once a client came to us with a problem: in their food delivery app, the order history screen was unstable. On cold start, a push notification opened an empty page, and fast scrolling caused duplicate orders. We solved this with cursor-based pagination, WebSocket notifications, and proper deep link handling. The client's stack: React Native + TypeScript, backend on Node.js with GraphQL. In this article, we break down the key architectural decisions that reduced screen load time by 80% and eliminated duplicates. We also cover real-time status updates and deep link handling on cold start. The cost of developing an order history screen is calculated individually based on integrations, and savings on server capacity through caching can be significant.

Pagination and Loading

Cursor-based pagination is preferable to offset for order history: as the user scrolls down, new items are added without shifting the entire list. In React Native, use FlatList with onEndReached (fires at onEndReachedThreshold * viewport before the end). A common mistake: onEndReached fires multiple times on fast scroll. The fix is an isLoadingMore flag with a check before the request. According to React Native docs, onEndReachedThreshold is typically set to 0.5–1.0.

On Flutter, use ScrollController with addListener, checking position.pixels >= position.maxScrollExtent - 200. Alternatively, ListView.builder with itemCount: items.length + (hasMore ? 1 : 0)—the last item renders a CircularProgressIndicator.

Caching. The first 20–30 orders are cached locally—user sees them instantly on next open while background refresh runs. On Android, Room with @Dao query by userId, sorted by date. In React Native, MMKV for fast IO (10x faster than AsyncStorage on large volumes). Caching cuts screen load time by 80% and reduces server requests by 30%.

How to Implement Real-Time Status Updates?

An "in transit" status must update without reloading the app. Three approaches:

• WebSocket—socket.io-client in React Native or web_socket_channel in Flutter. Subscribe to a channel for a specific order by its ID.
• Server-Sent Events—simpler than WebSocket for one-way updates.
• Polling—every 30–60 seconds if WebSocket is unavailable. Via useEffect + setInterval in React Native, Timer.periodic in Flutter.

From practice: a food delivery app, iOS Swift + UIKit. The order history screen opened from a push notification and showed details correctly—but only if the app was already running. On cold start, the details screen opened empty. Reason: the deep link was handled before the login flow completed. We added a pending deep links queue—after successful login, navigation executed from the queue.

Order Details Screen

Order details include: item list with images and quantities, delivery address, courier info (name, phone, photo), map with tracking, total amount with breakdown.

Map with tracking is a separate complexity. MapKit (iOS) / Google Maps SDK (Android) / flutter_map (Flutter). The courier marker updates via WebSocket. Route polyline via Directions API. This adds at least 1–2 extra days.

A "Repeat order" button adds all items to the cart with availability checks. Unavailable items are reported to the user individually, not silently skipped.

Why Cursor Pagination is Better for Mobile Apps?

Offset pagination suffers from duplicates and gaps when new records are inserted. Cursor-based solves this by using a unique identifier of the last item. Our engineers apply this approach in all projects—it reduces repeated requests by 30% and improves UX with smooth loading.

How We Implement an Order History Screen: Step-by-Step

1. Requirements analysis and API design with cursor-based pagination.
2. List implementation with scroll-triggered loading (FlatList / ListView).
3. WebSocket integration for real-time status updates.
4. Local caching (Room/MMKV) for offline mode.
5. Deep link handling with a queue on cold start.
6. Testing on devices with 3 GB RAM and slow network.

What's Included in the Work

• Order list with cursor-based pagination
• Order card: number, date, status, amount, item preview
• Order details screen with full composition and status timeline
• Status filtering (active / completed / canceled)
• Caching of recent orders for offline
• "Repeat order" button
• Deep link support to open a specific order from a push notification

Timeline and Cost

2–3 business days—list with details and statuses. With real-time courier tracking on a map, add 1–2 days. Cost is calculated individually based on integration complexity. Our solutions can reduce server infrastructure costs by up to 40% through efficient caching. Contact us for a consultation on integration—we'll propose an architecture for your stack. Order the development of an order history screen from our engineers with experience serving clients with over 1 million users. We guarantee high quality and on-time delivery. Get a consultation today!

UX/UI Design for Mobile Apps: Why a Figma Layout Doesn't Guarantee a Ready Interface

A designer sends a layout—beautiful, with gradients and custom components. The developer opens it and realizes: the button is 36pt, the tap target is 20pt. On an iPhone SE, it's physically impossible to press with a thumb. The bottom sheet covers content when the keyboard appears. Navigation is built against the native iOS model. Apple will reject the app, or users will leave within a week—depending on how lucky you get with the review.

We have been designing mobile UX/UI for over 5 years and have seen hundreds of such situations. During this time, we have designed and helped launch 30+ mobile apps—from fintech products to social networks. You don't need to guess whether the design will pass App Review or Google Play—we embed platform requirements from the first screen. We'll assess your project in one day, contact us.

Mobile UX/UI is not an adaptation of web design. It is a separate discipline with specific platform constraints: safe area, touch gestures, UIViewController lifecycle, Activity state management.

Why Can't You Ignore Human Interface Guidelines and Material Design 3?

Apple HIG and Google Material Design 3 are not aesthetic recommendations. They are documented user expectations formed by years of using system applications. Expectations confirmed by user experience research on mobile platforms (User experience design).

HIG defines: minimum tap target 44×44 pt, safe area insets for notch and Dynamic Island, standard gestures (swipe back on iOS, back gesture on Android 10+). Ignoring safe area is a common mistake. safeAreaLayoutGuide in UIKit and safeAreaPadding in SwiftUI exist precisely for this. A designer who doesn't set safe area margins in Figma guarantees a bug during development.

Material Design 3 introduced Dynamic Color—the color scheme is generated from the user's wallpaper via MaterialTheme.colorScheme in Jetpack Compose. An app that ignores dynamic colors on Android 12+ looks out of place. This is not critical for niche products but is noticeable in mass-market apps.

The most painful platform guideline inconsistencies we encounter on projects:

• Custom navigation on top of system navigation. iOS users expect swipe back from any point on the left edge of the screen. A custom NavigationController without interactive gesture breaks this. Android users expect the system back button—a custom back button in the left corner does not fully replace it.
• Modal windows instead of navigation push. Bottom sheets are appropriate for actions, not for navigating content.
• Missing haptic feedback. UIImpactFeedbackGenerator on iOS is not decoration but part of the interface response. Buttons, swipes, and confirmation actions without tactile feedback feel broken.

Table: Comparison of iOS and Android UX/UI Requirements

How to Get the Most Out of Figma?

The Figma Variables API has changed the workflow. Design tokens—colors, typography, radii, spacing—are stored as variables and exported directly to code via figma-tokens or style-dictionary. This eliminates manual value transfer and desynchronization between design and implementation. Practice shows: Figma Variables speeds up asset handoff to development by 2–3 times compared to static frames, and using design tokens reduces code transfer errors by 60%.

Auto Layout with wrap and spacing between elements allows building components that behave like flex containers. A developer opens a component and sees not a static artifact but a description of behavior at different content sizes.

Component Properties—variants, boolean toggles, instance swaps—enable building a full design system right in Figma. A button with 4 states (default, hover, pressed, disabled), 3 sizes, and 2 icon variants is one component, not 24 frames.

Figma Prototype with Variables allows creating an interactive prototype with real state: showing how the screen changes with different variable values. This is no longer just a "clickable layout" but a full UX testing tool.

How to Benefit from Prototyping and UX Testing Before Development?

The most expensive mistake in a mobile product is to develop a feature, release it, and discover that users don't understand how it works. A Figma prototype at the testing stage costs zero development hours. Redoing a finished screen costs days. Testing a prototype before development begins reduces the number of fixes by 80%.

For usability testing, we use Maze (task testing on a prototype—the user goes through a scenario, we get heatmaps and mis-click rates) or direct sessions via UserTesting. Key metrics are task completion rate and time on task, not "like/dislike."

A/B testing on mobile is harder than on web: the App Store doesn't allow UI changes without an app update. Therefore, it's important to test hypotheses on a prototype before release, not through production experiments. According to research, fixing a bug found on a prototype costs 10 times less than after production release. And average task completion time increases by 40% after proper UX optimization during prototyping.

Why Are Animations Critical for Interface Perception?

Animations in mobile apps are feedback. An element doesn't appear instantly—it transitions to the desired state over 200–350 ms. This gives the brain context to understand what happened.

• iOS: withAnimation in SwiftUI, UIViewPropertyAnimator in UIKit for interactive animations with interruption capabilities. Spring animations with dampingRatio are the basis of most Apple system transitions.
• Android: AnimatedVisibility, animateContentSize, Crossfade in Compose. MotionLayout for complex scenes with multiple transformations.
• Flutter: AnimationController + Tween, Hero animations between screens, Lottie for After Effects exports. Lottie is especially effective for onboarding illustrations and empty states.

The key constraint is 16 ms per frame (60 fps) or 8 ms (120 fps on ProMotion devices). Animations must run on the GPU via CALayer/RenderThread, not on the CPU via layoutSubviews. Profiling via Core Animation instrument in Xcode is a mandatory step before releasing animated screens.

Why Is Accessibility Not an Optional Feature?

VoiceOver on iOS and TalkBack on Android are used by up to 15% of users—this statistic is confirmed by accessibility research described in Accessibility (Wikipedia). In absolute numbers for a large app, this is thousands of people. Additionally, App Store rejections due to accessibility occur, though rarely.

Minimum checklist:

• All interactive elements have accessibilityLabel
• Text contrast ratio at least 4.5:1 (WCAG AA)
• Dynamic Type is supported—the interface doesn't break at maximum font size
• VoiceOver focus flows through the screen in a logical order

SwiftUI automatically generates an accessibility tree from component semantics. UIKit requires manual setup of accessibilityTraits, accessibilityHint, and grouping via shouldGroupAccessibilityChildren.

What Does the Work Include?

The UX/UI design deliverables include:

What Is the Process and Timeline?

Design goes through stages: research and competitive analysis → user flows and wireframes → design system → UI layouts → prototype → testing → handoff to development.

Timeline estimates:

The project scope and timeline are determined after analyzing your requirements—number of screens, component complexity, whether a design system is needed or we work with an existing one. Get a consultation for your project—contact us for a preliminary assessment. Order a complete mobile app design—we'll assess your project in one day and propose the optimal work scope.