How to develop a mobile app for events and conferences with little to no resources at scale

1. How to develop
a conference/event
mobile app in 2 months
with little to no resources
(and still keep [some of] your sanity)

2. Talent Connect

3. HOW BIG?
3

4. THIS BIG
4

5. MASSIVE
5

6. 3200+ Attendees

7. Not a trivial problem

8. The end goal

9. More professional, more social, and more mobile
Create a more engaging event experience
with social gestures via
a mobile application
Confidential

10. Product

11. Confidential

12. Talent Connect Features 2013








Agenda / Speakers
Who is here / Connections who are here
People you should meet (PYMK joined with attendees)
Rate sessions
Analytics (mixpanel)
Push notifications (Urban airship stretch goal)
Sharing to NUS – (viral hooks experimental stretch goal)
Embedded Slideshare decks (extreme experimental
stretch goal)
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12

13. MVP Platforms

14. 14

15. Wait. I don’t know:
Objective-C
Java

16. Doh!

17. 17

18. Native vs. HTML5

19. I’ll take speed* to MVP
in this case
* The javascript engine on iOS is blazingly fast as of iOS6!

20. Frontend technical details
 PhoneGap for iOS and Android native apps
 HTML5: Mobile Web Experience for other
clients
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20

21. 3200+ Attendees

22. Can it scale on the backend?

23. NodeJS

24. Express? Nope.

25. Hapi.js
(Walmart Labs)

26. Build for scale (3200+ Attendees)





Nodejs (~2000 qps)
Server side memcache (hapi.js)
Client side cache (versioning heartbeat)
Real time content changes (js injection)
Reusable shell and content ready for Talent
Connect London (+2 weeks)
Confidential
26

27. Build for client speed
 DOM manipulation only (saves rendering
time for WebViews)
 Client side cache (versioning heartbeat)
 Lazy load images
 Static assets loaded into native app when
“common”, network sensitive, or large in
size
Confidential
27

28. Client side plugins





jQuery
Hammer.js (swipe gestures)
Lazyload.js
Spin.js
Fastclick.js (reduces delay of clicks on
mobile)
Confidential
28

29. Conference risks
 Wireless/network connection at event
could be spotty (slow to/no-load of
resources)
 Last minute agenda/speaker updates most
likely
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29

30. Overcoming risks
 Content must be cached on client
 Post-push-to-app-store changes via js
injections (DOM manipulation on the fly
and cached on client in case of network
outage)
Confidential
30

31. localStorage.setItem(“client-cache”,”ftw”);
function checkForAgendaUpdates() {
$.getJSON(versionAPI, {}, function(data) {
// RETURNS Small dataset aka {version: 1.0}
// push as little data to the client as possible
// object also cached on server to reduce large file requests when not needed
var newVersion = data.version;
if (!localStorage.getItem("currentVersion") || data.version > localStorage.getItem("currentVersion")) {
console.log("We are out of date and must update");
$.getJSON(updateAPI, {}, function(data) {
if (localStorage.getItem("location") == "london") {
agendaJSON = data.London;
} else {
agendaJSON = data.Vegas;
}
localStorage.setItem("agenda", JSON.stringify(data));
localStorage.setItem("currentVersion", newVersion);
});
}
});
}
Confidential
31

32. Timeline management

33. 2600+2600+
Weeks for iOS
app approval
33

34. Start iOS First

35. Android next…

36. Engagement

37. 2600+2600+
1300+
members
2600+
members
37

38. 2600+2600+
Page views*
38
* Not actual page view events but activity events inside the DOM that should be classified as page views.

39. 2600+2600+
Shares to LinkedIn
39

40. 2600+2600+
Rated session actions
40

41. Views
Speakers
PYSM
CheckIns
Who is here
2600+2600+
Connections
Map
Home
Agenda
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
Axis Title
25000
30000
35000
41

42. Q&A

43. UX evolution of an app
(appendix slides)

44. March 2010
44

45. June 2011
45

46. September 2013
46