My Unpacking the Developer Experience talk + DC Hackers at MoDevUX
Last week, the MoDev team hosted their second MoDevUX conference and hackathon in the DC Metro area. The conference was held at the Hilton in McLean, Virginia and saw a turnout of about 300 people.
Being a front-end guy in my previous life, I have a special corner for anything UI/UX, and MoDevUX falls smack in the middle of that category. MoDevUX is an annual Mobile Developer Conference, with special focus on UI/UX.
My Talk at MoDevUX - Unpacking Developer Experience
I gave a talk at the conference which was about the importance of paying attention to Developer Experience - the experience the developers get using your API/SDKs.
The Developer experience for your API is much like an unpacking experience of a product. It begins when a developer first lands on your developer portal wanting to learn more about your API and what he sees there is either gonna make or break his experience. 10 things you can do to ensure it's a pleasant one.
You can get the slides here, or if you're feeling more courageous, you can watch the video!
MoDevHack - The Hackathon
The two day Workshop/Conference was then followed up by MoDevHack - a one day hackathon designed to get mobile developers together and build some innovative, useful and fun apps. This is the day when most fun takes place.
The hackathon on Saturday saw a very healthy turn out at at the gorgeous Capital One Labs office in Clarendon, VA. One of the best hackathon spaces I've been to. Seriously.
As many as 15 hacks were built at the hackathon, which included three Mashery hacks. It also included two hacks built by ten year olds, which has not become a very encouraging trend at DC area hackathons.
KBaM - Kids, Body and Mind An iOS app that helps parents keep track of kids health - meal plans, doctor appointments using Aetna's CarePass API.
Vista Slate Bank: An Android app that allows you to stay entertained while waiting in a bank queue using ESPN, Guardian, USA TODAY and Univision APIs.
Grubby: a mobile app that lets you keep track of your food habits using nutrient information from FoodCare
Best Mashery hack #2 - Team Vista Slate Bank
Mashery USB bottle opener powered the Happy hour at MoDevHack