Coders4Africa Ethiopia Developers & Technopreneurs Conference 2014: Building Mobile Smartphone Apps

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


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


The Market Share (Consumers)


The Market Share (Developers)


Developer Spread by Continent


Platform Priority


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


Mobile Developer Choices

� Native vs Hybrid

� BaaS vs Own Backend

� Enterprise vs Consumer

� Freemium vs Premium


“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


What can Android Do?


What can Android Do?


Developing for Android

� Don’t mimic UI elements


Developing for Android

• No bottom bars in Android


Android Design Patterns

� Dealing with data (display,sort,search)



� Getting Input



� Navigation

� Not so long ago--� Now



� Notifications or Feedback


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


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)


…Ghana


…Kenya


…Ethiopia

� Mobile Penetration: 30% (30M)

� Internet Reach: 1.5% (1.35M)

� Users needs apps, and apps need a creator


East Africa Mobile World 2013

� Build solutions to real problems


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


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


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/


አመሰግናለሁ ☺

ameseghinallehu ☺


Contacts

1. Twitter: @JohnAdamsy

2. LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/johnadamsy


Technology

Coders4Africa Ethiopia Developers & Technopreneurs Conference 2014: Building Mobile Smartphone Apps