Date post: | 18-Nov-2014 |
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Technology |
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2014 Coders4Africa Ethiopia Coding & Tech
Conference
Building Mobile Smartphone App (Android)
Copyright Coders4Africa 2014 www.coders4africa.org 1
About Me1. Name: John Opiyo Adams
2. Education: Business & IT, Strathmore University (2013)
3. 1st App: Built in VB6, (My high school project,2008)
4. Technical : Java*,PHP*,C#, JavaScript,Android*,WP
5. Speak: Swahili, English, Japanese (Basic),+2
6. Volunteer (Mentor high school kids), Reader
7. Technical Lead, Coders4Africa Kenya (Since 2011)
8. Co-founder : Buymore (http://buymore.co.ke)
9. Twitter: @JohnAdamsy
10. LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/johnadamsy
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The Mobile Environment
� Until smartphone’s arrived, everything (from the PC) was “rationed”
� Processing power is NOT a problem now
� But: Battery life, impatient-and-multitasking user, Connectivity, Network reliability, small screen
� The developer has to think in those dimensions as an App has to be great with the limited resources
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The Market Share (Consumers)
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The Market Share (Developers)
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Developer Spread by Continent
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Platform Priority
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Mobile Developers’ Manual� You won’t find one that answers all
questions� Each platform adheres to the common
design patterns and principles� Implementation is not homogenous in all
cases� So don’t “force the issue”; consumers can
tell.� Treat each platform uniquely� Always RTM (read the manual) before
firing up code
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Mobile Developer Choices
� Native vs Hybrid
� BaaS vs Own Backend
� Enterprise vs Consumer
� Freemium vs Premium
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“Smart” Mobile Developer
o Do market research (consumer apps)
� Work with your client(s) (enterprise)
� Sketch it out before you fire up the IDE
� Get a really good designer
� Consult an expert on unfamiliar grounds
� Use latest design patterns (wins users)
� Share with your peers to critic and test it
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What can Android Do?
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What can Android Do?
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Developing for Android
� Don’t mimic UI elements
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Developing for Android
• No bottom bars in Android
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Android Design Patterns
� Dealing with data (display,sort,search)
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Android Design Patterns
� Getting Input
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Android Design Patterns
� Navigation
� Not so long ago--� Now
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Android Design Patterns
� Notifications or Feedback
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Android Design Principles
� Remember user preferences
� Keep it brief, oh and pictures speak louder
� Always let the user know where they are
� Never loose user’s data, what’s the cloud for?
� Give clear guidelines and instructions
� More details at: http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html
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Developing Apps for Africa� Connectivity, platform, content storage
� Cost of data (for data intensive apps)
� The trends (Mobile access), local social problems (health,agriculture,security,governance,service provision)
� Scalability and re-use (Build in Ethiopia, deploy to the rest of 51 states in Africa)
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…Ghana
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…Kenya
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…Ethiopia
� Mobile Penetration: 30% (30M)
� Internet Reach: 1.5% (1.35M)
� Users needs apps, and apps need a creator
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East Africa Mobile World 2013
� Build solutions to real problems
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Demo Apps
�C4A Conference App:
A hack from Parse Developer Day app. Uses the Parse BaaS.
�MyWorld2015
UNDP MDG survey app: Offline data collection
�BuymoreCard
�BuymoreDiscount
�BuymoreRegister
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References and Resources� Backends as a Service compared
http://flexr.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/backends-as-a-service-appcelerator-acs-vs-parse-vs-applicasa-vs-stackmob/
� Vision Mobile Developer Economics Report
http://www.developereconomics.com/reports/q1-2014/
� Pure Android Design Patterns
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/pure-android.html
http://www.androiduipatterns.com
� Android Design Principles
http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html
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References and Resources� iHub Research on Mobile Stats in East Africa 2013
http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Mobile-use-infographic-edited1.png
� African Infographics 2013-2014
http://www.pinterest.com/oafrica/african-infographics/
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አመሰግናለሁ ☺
ameseghinallehu ☺
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Contacts
1. Twitter: @JohnAdamsy
2. LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/johnadamsy
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