Presentation at leancamp about re-using Yahoo's free systems like YQL, YUI and Design patterns to build fast, scaling prototypes.

1. Are
you
ready
to
rock?
Chris&an Heilmann
Leancamp, London, England, May 2010

2. Some people call
me a “Rockstar
developer”...

3. The reason is that I
can churn out
demos and
products really fast.

4. http://keywordfinder.org/

5. http://isithackday.com/hacks/guardian/

6. http://icant.co.uk/geomaker/

7. http://isithackday.com/geoplanet-explorer/geodrilldown.php

8. http://icant.co.uk/geomaker/index.php

9. http://github.com/codepo8/QuickTrans

10. http://icant.co.uk/goohoobi/index.php?research

11. h;p://uk‐house‐prices.com/

12. ... and I weep for
those who take this
“Rockstar” hoo-hah
serious.

13. DO WE NEED
ROCKSTARS?

14. No, we need
pragmatic thinking.

15. So you want to
release some cool
products to the
world...

16. Let me introduce
you to some of the
technical things you
need to face...

17. Data Environment
Interface

18. How do we normally
start a new
product?

19. Summoning the inner
demon!

20. And we try to tackle
all of it ourselves.

21. And we fail...

22. Our users walk out
on us...

23. And we
wonder
what went
wrong.

24. You were just not
lazy enough!

25. You don’t need to
build the perfect
product.

26. You need to build
something that
people want to use.

27. Data Environment
Interface

28. Data is the most
important part of
your product.

29. You either need
unique and
interesting data...

30. Or you need to
make it dead easy
for people to enter
theirs.

31. And you need to
have means of
allowing people to
enhance their data.

32. You should also
think very much
about building your
product on top of a
data API.

33. The reasons are
obvious:
You can change the backend or the
frontend when you need to.
You build them in parallel.
You can have various different
interfaces to the same content (mobile,
web, iPad...)
You give third parties access to your
data and not to your system.
You crowdsource innovation.

34. Success stories?

35. Using other
people’s APIs also
allows you to enrich
your data.

37. This wasn’t easy
and took a while to
get into in the past.

38. Which annoyed us,
which is why we
created a simple
way.

39. YQL h;p://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/

40. YQL h;p://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/
select {what} from {where}
where {condi&ons}

41. http://winterolympicsmedals.com

42. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/
2010/feb/11/winter-olympics-medals-by-country

45. select * from csv where url="http://
spreadsheets.google.com/pub?
key=tpWDkIZMZleQaREf493v1Jw&output=
csv" and
columns="Year,City,Sport,Discipline,Countr
y,Event, Gender,Type" and Year="1924"

46. http://isithackday.com/csv-to-webservice/

47. http://github.com/yql/yql-tables

48. Using YQL has a lot of
benefits:
No time wasted reading API docs
Using the console makes creating
complex queries dead easy.
Data filtering down to the least
amount necessary.
Fast pipes.
Caching + converting
Server-side JavaScript

49. Data Environment
Interface

50. Users are strange
creatures.

51. You are not your
users.
You are far too
close to the subject
matter.

52. Only real user
testing will tell you
what works with
users.

53. Instructions will be
misread.

54. Only real user
testing will tell you
what works with
users.

55. You can do cheap
and fast user
testing.

56. Or you can build on
things that were
already tested for
you.

57. http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns

58. http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/

59. Data Environment
Interface

60. All browsers
secretly hate
you.

61. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/articles/gbs/

63. Build a CSS layout that works
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/builder/

64. Use already existing widgets
http://isithackday.com/hacks/cantine/
index.php?loc=covent+garden
http://isithackday.com/hacks/cantine/

65. http://isithackday.com/hacks/delhi/

66. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

69. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/docs/

70. http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/

71. The elevator lift pitch
YUI is the system that Yahoo uses to
build its web sites. It is constantly
tested to work for the largest amount
of users, free, open source and covers
everything from design patterns to out-
of-the-box widgets. It is modular and
you can use only what you need. You
can either host it yourself or get it from
a network of distributed servers.

72. Are you ready to rock?

73. Chris&an Heilmann
h;p://wait‐&ll‐i.com Cheers
h;p://developer‐evangelism.com
h;p://twi;er.com/codepo8