SXSWi Report: App Development

By David McKelvey

Morgan and I do sometimes attend the same session, but often we’ll split to each follow different technologies in which we specialize. For my part, along with Robb, I’ve been doing a lot of app development lately (search engine, the new source, the displays, the directory, etc.) so I focused on several sessions that would help us work more quickly/efficiently in app development from technologies to prototyping.

For me, these sessions boiled down to two primary tracks: single codebase solutions and rapid, user-reflective prototyping (my terminology here). Don’t worry if these terms don’t make sense, just keep reading. I’ll explain what they are and why they’re important to you and Lewis & Clark. 

Single Codebase Solutions

Single codebase solutions would give newmedia the ability to develop a single application that would serve many devices (e.g. phones, tablets, laptops) with a minimum of code. Less code is faster (cheaper) to develop and maintain, meaning more nimble applications that are more responsive to user feedback.

Rapid, User-reflective Prototyping

By working with paper (yes, really) and other user-reflective feedback methods throughout the app development process, newmedia will be able to make our apps better respond to user problems, and solve them giving the user a feeling of “delight.” (Since you are among our users, I hope to delight you soon.)