What and why every developer needs to know about mobile development

Joint meeting with Scottish Developers

Tuesday 21st February 2012, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Matt Lacey.

Room 4.31 (fourth floor), University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB - map (click on Informatics Forum in the list of buildings).

Refreshments and networking from 6:00 pm.

This event is free of charge and open to all. No registration required - just turn up.

Synopsis

Tomorrow we'll be building apps for a wider variety of devices that we are today.

Soon, you're not going to survive if you can only develop for the desktop. As a smart and pragmatic developer you've done your best to keep up with all the latest trends and development best practices.

But what about platforms beyond the desktop?

Maybe you've learnt, or heard, HOW to build a mobile app, but do you know WHAT should be different in a mobile app? Or WHY it should be different? And what about other platforms... tablet, table, wall, etc.?

Mobile is special. And it's special for two important reasons.

Firstly, it's different from the desktop in all the major ways that matter on other platforms too.

Secondly, it's a mature enough environment that we've had time to learn and understand it and the best approach to dealing with those differences. And we understand those differences enough that we can apply lessons to other platforms too.

In this session we'll cover all the key ways that mobile development is different and how to apply that knowledge to whatever platform you're developing for...be that mobile, tablet, TV, table, wall or something else...

Whether you've making apps, websites or both, and regardless of whichever platforms you have experience developing for, this session has something for everyone.

About the speaker

Matt Lacey is disappointed with most of the software experiences he's exposed to each day and dreams of a world where software works the way users want and need it to. He believes that things can be better and wants to help developers make things better. You'll often find him answering questions on StackOverflow and organising 2, yes 2, user groups: DevEvening and the Windows Phone User Group. Since the late 90's he's worked at a variety of companies (from the very large to the very small) and built software on more platforms and with more languages than he can remember. He currently works as a freelance mobile software developer specialising in Windows Phone. Read his development ramblings on his blog (http://blog.mrlacey.co.uk/) and follow him on twitter (@mrlacey).