Talk by Linton Ye/Matt Giles - “Live prototyping” - a glimpse into the future of mobile app development

TITLE: “Live prototyping” - a glimpse into the future of mobile app development

SPEAKERS: Linton Ye, Matt Giles, jimu Labs Inc.

HOST: Gail Murphy

DATE/TIME: Friday, May 3, 1:00 pm

LOCATION: ICCS X836 (CS Boardroom)

ABSTRACT:

Alan Kay said the best way to predict the future is to invent it. We think the best way to invent the future is to create tools for inventors. We are eager to meet like-minded people to exchange ideas and work together to invent the future of programming.

We are a startup that strongly believes in a future of software literacy, where understanding and creating software becomes a fundamental skill like reading and writing. A new generation of software development tools would become the norm in the daily lives of a large portion of the population (not just programmers), as pens and word processors have in the past.

To this end, we’re building tools to help people think about app creation at a more intuitive level. In this talk we’ll demonstrate our first step in this direction, a rapid development tool for Android called a “live prototyper” targeting UX designers.  We’ll also present the research problems that we are facing.

Existing design tools such as wireframing and static mocking tools were designed many years ago for the old school desktop experience. They cannot effectively capture the much more dynamic, tangible and intimate mobile experience.  Live prototyping is a promising approach to fill this gap.  It empowers designers to rapidly create “live prototypes”, hi-fidelity prototypes with realistic interfaces and interactions that “live” (run) in the target device. They are real, working apps that give designers genuine and accurate feedback on their ideas, and let them quickly try different variations and observe the results.

A more detailed introduction to live prototyping can be found in on our website. A video of our current work can be found in on our Youtube channel.

BIO:

Linton Ye is an experienced entrepreneur and software generalist. He has been programming for over 20 years with full-stack experience in mobile, web technologies (both frontend and backend), development tools and user interfaces. He has been writing apps before the first Android phone, HTC G1, was even available. He has taught classes and given talks about Android. Linton worked as a senior developer at IBM, and holds a MSc. in computer science at UBC (SPL). Linton is a lifelong learner. Exercise, meditation and reading are the top three things on his everyday todo list.

Matt Giles is a software developer and just completed his degree at the University of Victoria. He thinks software can transform the way people work and is interested in developing tools that do so. He's been working on jimu since 2011 building the backend app generator. He loves an interesting challenge and creating something that he hasn't seen before. When not working on jimu Matt enjoys running, rock climbing, and reading.