Executive summary
The International Ice Hockey Federation’s existing mobile app played an important role during international tournaments, helping hockey fans worldwide follow live scores, schedules, statistics, and match updates.
Over time, however, the platform had become increasingly difficult to maintain. Technical issues, outdated dependencies, operational inefficiencies, and growing UX limitations were affecting both fans and administrators.
Ahead of the upcoming World Championships, the federation needed to improve the app’s performance, usability, and day-to-day operations within a very limited timeframe, while also preparing the platform for future development.
Helmes worked closely with the IIHF team through a phased delivery approach. The project included redesigning parts of the user experience, upgrading the Flutter codebase, introducing monitoring and logging capabilities, and simplifying administrative workflows for the federation’s internal teams.
The initial work helped the IIHF improve the app ahead of the tournament period, while the later technical upgrades made the platform easier to maintain and evolve over time. The project also reduced support overhead, improved operational efficiency, and enabled the federation to manage more tasks independently without requiring ongoing developer involvement.
The collaboration ultimately became the starting point for the IIHF’s later transition toward a broader fan engagement platform focused on year-round digital experiences for hockey fans worldwide.
Meet the customer
The International Ice Hockey Organization is the governing body of international ice hockey with 83 national member associations. One of its main roles is overseeing ice hockey in the Olympic Games and the IIHF World Championships. Across all levels, it runs around 25 different world championships and a set of European club competitions annually.
The IIHF has an official mobile app on Google Play and the App Store to promote the sport and allow fans to follow tournaments from anywhere. The app allows the fans to follow all official IIHF tournaments with live scores, instant goal notifications, and real-time game statistics and access several other features, such as fan areas.
The challenge
The IIHF app had accumulated significant technical debt and operational complexity. Frequent crashes and compatibility issues made the platform harder to manage, particularly during high-traffic tournament periods.
Behind the scenes, many administrative tasks still depended on manual processes, while certain updates and changes required direct support from the development team. This slowed down day-to-day operations and increased the effort required to maintain the platform.
The ageing Flutter codebase also limited the federation’s ability to expand the app further. Some planned improvements could not be implemented efficiently because of unsupported libraries, deprecated components, and growing compatibility constraints across the system.
Our approach
Because of the tight timeline ahead of the World Championships, Helmes structured the project into multiple delivery phases. The immediate focus was on ensuring the app could support heavy tournament usage with minimal disruption for existing users, while larger technical improvements would continue after the event.
The approach focused on:
- improving app performance and reducing crashes
- simplifying navigation and usability
- lowering operational and maintenance overhead
- updating the ageing Flutter codebase
- creating a stronger foundation for future enhancements
Throughout the championships, Helmes worked closely with the IIHF team to monitor the platform, respond quickly to issues, and support day-to-day operations during peak usage periods.
After the tournament, the collaboration continued with a broader focus on simplifying maintenance, reducing technical debt, and preparing the application for future feature development.
The solution
Ahead of the World Championships, the development team focused on resolving the most critical technical and user experience issues affecting the application. This included reviewing streams of unhandled exceptions, fixing recurring crashes, and optimising performance across the platform.
Key improvements included:
- resolving stability and performance issues
- replacing outdated multimedia players
- introducing logging and monitoring capabilities
- improving dashboard layouts and navigation
- refining the overall browsing experience
Once the championships had concluded, the focus shifted toward modernising the platform’s technical foundation.
The IIHF app was still running on Flutter 1, which created growing compatibility limitations and restricted future development possibilities. Helmes migrated the application to Flutter 3, requiring substantial updates across libraries, deprecated components, and core functionality.
The migration work included:
- resolving compatibility issues across the codebase
- replacing deprecated components and controls
- updating unsupported libraries
- rebuilding parts of the search functionality
- improving maintainability across the application architecture
In total, the team resolved more than 1,000 code-level issues during the migration process.
The upgraded foundation made the platform easier to maintain, reduced operational overhead, and enabled the IIHF to continue expanding the app with new functionality and future fan engagement features.
Measurable results
The modernisation project improved both the fan experience and the day-to-day management of the IIHF application.
Key outcomes included:
- improved app stability and responsiveness during tournament periods
- reduced support and maintenance effort
- simpler administration through self-service capabilities
- improved navigation and usability for fans
- better operational visibility through monitoring and logging tools
- greater flexibility for future feature expansion
The new self-service capabilities allowed IIHF administrators to manage more operational tasks independently, reducing reliance on developers for routine updates and content management.
The migration from Flutter 1 to Flutter 3 also removed several technical limitations that had previously slowed down development and restricted new functionality. The collaboration between Helmes and the IIHF continued beyond the initial modernisation project and later expanded into the federation’s broader fan engagement platform initiative.
«Working with Helmes was an exceptional experience. Their Flutter app development team consistently demonstrated exceptional professionalism and responsiveness, particularly during critical situations. Their dedication to delivering high-quality solutions and their proactive approach to problem-solving were instrumental in ensuring the success of our project.«
Stefan Grauwiler, Technology Director in IIHF
Work with Helmes
Modernising an existing digital product often requires balancing immediate operational needs with longer-term technical improvements.
Helmes can help with mobile app development projects that modernise legacy systems, reduce maintenance complexity, and improve long-term scalability — without disrupting day-to-day business operations.
Whether the goal is extending the life of an existing platform or preparing it for future growth, we help organisations evolve digital products in a practical and sustainable way.
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