Coders4Africa held its inaugural technology conference in Ethiopia on 1st and 2nd of March 2014. This is a presentation that was given to highlight the state of mobile applications for "smart devices" with supporting data around the African continent compared to the rest of the world.

1. 2014 Coders4Africa
Ethiopia Coding & Tech
Conference
Building Mobile Smartphone App (Android)
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2. About Me
1. Name: John Opiyo Adams
2. Education: Business & IT, Strathmore University (2013)
3. 1st App: Built in VB6, (My high school project,2008)
4. Technical : Java*,PHP*,C#, JavaScript,Android*,WP
5. Speak: Swahili, English, Japanese (Basic),+2
6. Volunteer (Mentor high school kids), Reader
7. Technical Lead, Coders4Africa Kenya (Since 2011)
8. Co-founder : Buymore (http://buymore.co.ke)
9. Twitter: @JohnAdamsy
10. LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/johnadamsy
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3. The Mobile Environment
Until smartphone’s arrived, everything
(from the PC) was “rationed”
Processing power is NOT a problem now
But: Battery life, impatient-and-
multitasking user, Connectivity, Network
reliability, small screen
The developer has to think in those
dimensions as an App has to be great
with the limited resources
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4. The Market Share (Consumers)
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5. The Market Share (Developers)
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6. Developer Spread by Continent
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7. Platform Priority
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8. Mobile Developers’ Manual
You won’t find one that answers all
questions
Each platform adheres to the common
design patterns and principles
Implementation is not homogenous in all
cases
So don’t “force the issue”; consumers can
tell.
Treat each platform uniquely
Always RTM (read the manual) before
firing up code
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9. Mobile Developer Choices
Native vs Hybrid
BaaS vs Own Backend
Enterprise vs Consumer
Freemium vs Premium
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10. “Smart” Mobile Developer
o Do market research (consumer apps)
Work with your client(s) (enterprise)
Sketch it out before you fire up the IDE
Get a really good designer
Consult an expert on unfamiliar grounds
Use latest design patterns (wins users)
Share with your peers to critic and test it
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11. What can Android Do?
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12. What can Android Do?
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13. Developing for Android
Don’t mimic UI elements
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14. Developing for Android
• No bottom bars in Android
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15. Android Design Patterns
Dealing with data (display,sort,search)
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16. Android Design Patterns
Getting Input
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17. Android Design Patterns
Navigation
Not so long ago-- Now
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18. Android Design Patterns
Notifications or Feedback
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19. Android Design Principles
Remember user preferences
Keep it brief, oh and pictures speak louder
Always let the user know where they are
Never loose user’s data, what’s the cloud
for?
Give clear guidelines and instructions
More details at:
http://developer.android.com/design/get-
started/principles.html
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20. Developing Apps for Africa
Connectivity, platform, content storage
Cost of data (for data intensive apps)
The trends (Mobile access), local social
problems
(health,agriculture,security,governance,servic
e provision)
Scalability and re-use (Build in Ethiopia,
deploy to the rest of 51 states in Africa)
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21. …Ghana
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22. …Kenya
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23. …Ethiopia
Mobile Penetration: 30% (30M)
Internet Reach: 1.5% (1.35M)
Users needs apps, and apps need a
creator
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24. East Africa Mobile World 2013
Build solutions to real problems
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25. Demo Apps
C4A Conference App:
A hack from Parse Developer Day app. Uses
the Parse BaaS.
MyWorld2015
UNDP MDG survey app: Offline data
collection
BuymoreCard
BuymoreDiscount
BuymoreRegister
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26. References and Resources
Backends as a Service compared
http://flexr.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/backends-as-a-service-
appcelerator-acs-vs-parse-vs-applicasa-vs-stackmob/
Vision Mobile Developer Economics Report
http://www.developereconomics.com/reports/q1-2014/
Pure Android Design Patterns
http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/pure-
android.html
http://www.androiduipatterns.com
Android Design Principles
http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html
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27. References and Resources
iHub Research on Mobile Stats in East Africa 2013
http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/Mobile-use-infographic-
edited1.png
African Infographics 2013-2014
http://www.pinterest.com/oafrica/african-infographics/
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28. አመሰግናለሁ ☺
ameseghinallehu ☺
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29. Contacts
1. Twitter: @JohnAdamsy
2. LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/johnadamsy
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