IoT Dev+Test 2016 - Design and Architecture
Tuesday, April 19
Mobile App Project Kick Off: Get It Right the First Time
The critical steps that need to happen before coding starts are all-too-often brushed over or skipped entirely. Developers, testers, product owners, and anyone at any level who is looking to refine or plan the critical UX portion of either a new product or revamping an existing product will benefit from this tutorial. Because user experience (UX) will make or break every new app, you have to get it right the first time. Jaimee Newberry explores brand/product voice and personality questions that help teams quickly map out the direction that affects everything—product experience, visual...
Wednesday, April 20
Mobile and IoT Win! Now What?
Smartphones now outnumber tablets and PCs combined. Mobile developers and testers make more money than their old-school counterparts. Now that mobile has won the race, a new set of questions arises. How has mobile changed—and how does it continue to change—software technology and the economy? What does this mean to you personally? How does mobile affect technology choices, company strategies, and your career? Jason Arbon shares how to capitalize on the mobile win. Mobile forced a reinvention of how we design, build, and test software. How can these lessons from mobile be applied to web and...
Usability vs. Security: Find the Right Balance in Mobile Apps
Successful mobile apps have two key features: a great user experience and the ability to protect users’ data. Balancing user experience and security—a key aspect of product design and engineering—requires a multidisciplinary approach. According to Levent Gurses, a well-balanced app is designed through a series of informed decisions, meaningful compromises, and research that supports core user behaviors. Based on lessons learned from designing winning mobile apps and securing front- and back-end infrastructure, Levent shares his method for scientifically discovering the most critical...
The Internet of Things in Action: Anki’s OVERDRIVE Racing Game
As products like Fitbit, Skylanders, and Anki’s OVERDRIVE race car game pop up all over, developers and testers need to be prepared for the wave of Internet of Things (IoT) products. Focusing on the mobile interactions of these devices and the tools used at Anki, Jane Fraser shows you how they ensure their systems are working as expected. Jane describes and demonstrates the tools Anki’s teams use to develop and test their games, especially OVERDRIVE—their racing game that uses robotics, embedded radios, BTLE, and WiFi to connect race cars to smart devices to deliver a multiplayer racing...
10,000 Years in Your Pocket: The Deep History of Your Mobile Device
We live in amazing times with amazing technology all around us. And mobile technology, delivered in iPhones and Android devices, is possibly the most amazing of all. While we designers, developers, and testers strive to make fantastic mobile apps and products, we often spend our efforts fixing the things that are wrong with the mobile experience. Taking a page from recent work in the field of positive psychology, James Dempsey wants us to pause and focus on the positive. Join James to appreciate the deep history of science, technology, and even religion that has led us from communicating...
Thursday, April 21
The First Wave of IoT—Blood in the Water
In the past two or three years the consumer market has seen the idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) go from a prediction to reality. The first wave of IoT products was largely fueled by the parallel innovation of crowdfunding, which allowed makers and early stage ideas to get off the ground without traditional funding sources. Many feel that the promised innovations from IoT have not yet been realized. Almost weekly another crowdfunded startup announces it’s closing its doors without ever shipping a product. Products that do ship often offer a poor user experience and are notoriously...
Get Started with Google Fit and Its API
Google has created a service that lets you store and read any health data you want—for free! Like every new API, mystery surrounds how it works, what it can do, and where the opportunities are. Google Fit supports storing activity data such as runs and pushups, nutrition information about that delicious piece of cake you just ate, and even stats like weight. Users then can see the information combined from multiple sources, instead of having to mentally or manually compile the data. Luke Wallace shows you which parts Google has built for you and what parts you’ll have to build yourself....