The Importance of Being Whimsical

What makes a good app? Sure, it should do what it claims to do, intuitively and efficiently. But that is just the base line. How do you stand out from the sea of apps? You need to go above and beyond, and whimsy may just be the secret ingredient you need.

Tumblr

At the keynote at AnDevCon Boston, Chris Haseman and Zack Sultan showed us how they designed and implemented the Tumblr app. They shared many tips and tricks to make your app look good and work well, but the recurring theme is to delight your user.

There are many whimsical touches to Tumblr, one being the pull-to-refresh animation:

Tumblr could have gone with a loading text or a standard spinny, but this custom animation brings the app a notch above others. It entices users to refresh more, increasing engagement. This is the power of whimsy.

Welcome animations

Animation is a great way to add whimsy to your app. At AltWWDC, Ben Johnson showcased many different apps with effective animations.

This is the welcome page of the Just Landed app. The subtle movement of the plane and the clouds hints to the users that there is more to come, encouraging them to try it out. You can argue that this is gratuitous, nothing more than eye candy. It adds no functionality to the app. But apps are not just about functionality. You need to connect with your users, make them feel good using your app. A delightful welcome page sets the stage for the rest of the app, and helps them stay engaged.

Reward your users

What’s happening here? You’re in the Zappos app, thought these sneakers look good, and pressed the "add to cart" button. A cat floated out, dropping the shoes into your cart Mary-Poppins style. What’s your reaction? Cool, I want to see that again. How? By adding more stuff to your cart! A whimsical gesture that directly increases the bottom line. I doubt anyone can call that gratuitous.

Whimsy everywhere

So you want to be whimsical. What to do? Whimsy hinges on unexpectedness, so it's a bit of an oxymoron to provide a formula. Fortunately, you have already taken the first step - awareness. Once you start paying attention, you will see whimsy everywhere, adding them to your repertoire, ready to inspire your own.

The other day I found whimsy in the most boring place of all - airplane safety video.

The video caught my eyes with a teeny tiny suitcase that got stowed under the seat. I found myself looking forward to more funny shots, and paying attention throughout. If you graph the whimsical moments, you can see that they frontload them to set the tone:

Once you are hooked, they get down to business and show you some serious content. Just before you get bored, they sprinkle a bit of whimsy again, keeping you on your toes, watching the whole video looking for more.

Unpredictable delights

It was said that we are addicted to emails because they are like slot machines. Most of the time you get nothing, but once in a while you get something awesome, and so you keep playing, in hope of hitting jackpot. Whimsy does the same trick to your app. It delights users in unpredictable ways, keeping them engaged, and separates your app from the herd.

DevConf Russia

It all started with a tweet:

@chiuki Hi! I'd like to invite you to speak about Android in June in Mocsow. How can I contact you?

— Дарья Ряжских (@darja_ryazhskih) March 8, 2013

My first reaction was, woah, Moscow? Not quite sure if I'd like to make the journey all the way from Silicon Valley. But after thinking about it for a while I decided, hey, why not. Initially I was going to make visit both Moscow and St Petersburg, but I was a bit daunted by the task of acquiring train tickets in Moscow, so I ended up just going to Moscow.

I arrived Moscow the day before DevConf, and the organizer was kind enough to come pick me up from the airport. I saw the beautiful Moscow metro on my way to the hotel.

Mosaic at Mayakovskaya station

Moscow metro

In the evening I had dinner with other out-of-town speakers, and then the organizers took us for a talk.

St Basil's Cathedral

GUM department store

State Historical Museum

Conference Day

The conference is from June 14 to 15, but the organizers told me that the second day was all Russian workshops, so I could go sightseeing that day. I assumed then the first day was talks in English, but when I showed up I discovered that all but three talks were in Russian. One was mine, the other two were on the same slot.

I gave my Android Custom Components talk. Here I was, explaining Canvas using the flip board:

Photo Credit: Antony Dovgal

After that I went the Android productivity talk by Alexandre Thomas:

And that was it. The rest of the conference were all in Russian. I ended up going for a walk with Alex and his girlfriend. There was a market right behind the hotel, with lots of interesting buildings:

And then we went to this really big park next door.

For dinner, we found two restaurants next to the hotel. One serves everything with fries, the other one is a Japanese restaurant. So we had sushi for dinner!

Turns out sushi is rather popular in Moscow, to the point where I recognized it in Cyrillic - суши.

Sightseeing

Saturday the organizers took us all around Moscow. First we went for a river cruise.

Russian Academy of Sciences

Ministry of Defence

Peter the Great Statue

Next we went to the Kremlin.

Kremlin

The Trinity Tower

The Assumption Cathedral

For lunch with went to Sanduny for tradition Russian food. It was so nice that I forgot to take photos!

After lunch we went for a walk. Saw the Bolshoi Theatre, GUM department store, St Basil's Cathedral and the Arbat area.

Bolshoi Theatre

St Basil's Cathedral

The DevConf Russia organizers took such good care of us it was quite amazing. They showed us around town, paid for everything, and even carried water bottles for us! I felt bad for not spending too much time at the conference, but it was really difficult to sit in sessions conducted in a foreign language. Hope the people who came to my talk found it useful!

AnDevCon Boston

Last week I was in Boston, attending AnDevCon Boston. Previous AnDevCon happens in the SF Bay Area, but it is branching out, alternating between east west coasts every six months. Very smart move to bring Android goodness to more people!

Glass Galore

One thing that jumped out at this AnDevCon was the prominence of the Glass Explorers. Quite a few attendees were wearing Google Glass, with a circle of people around them, asking questions, borrowing them for a test drive. Here is my friend Corey trying Glass:

Session highlights

There were so many interesting topics at AnDevCon that often they were scheduled at the same time, which meant I had to pick one at any given time. Fortunately many people were live tweeting, so there was a treasure grove of information to explore afterwards. Here are some highlights:

ViewConfiguration.java has a lot of convenience methods for MotionEvents.Use these methods to have uniform event handling.#andevcon

— James Baca (@desertjim) May 30, 2013

Picasso has memory & disk caches, with a debug mode showing where the images are loaded from. - @jessewilson at #AnDevCon

— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) May 30, 2013

Extensive examples for #AndroidDev continuous integration and testing: bit.ly/19sR9vq - @simpligility at #AnDevCon

— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) May 31, 2013

Good app with source code for playing with SQLCipher is play.google.com/store/apps/det… #AnDevCon

— Joe Sacher (@sacherjj) May 31, 2013

Learn more about protecting your apk with "Practicing Safe Dex" by @timstrazz bit.ly/15oPDr4 - @godfreynolan at #AnDevCon

— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) May 31, 2013

Tips for hunting leaks: set your image sample size to 128 (be like 5 pixels), then use MAT, that makes the problems more visible #AnDevCon

— Travis Himes (@lawngnomehitman) May 31, 2013

My sessions

I gave the same talks as AnDevCon IV: Beautiful Android on a Shoestring and Android Custom Components. They were scheduled back to back, at the last slots of the last day. I was very disappointed when I saw the program. My favorite part of speaking at conferences is talking to people, which often happens at lunch and coffee breaks. People who came to my talk spot me in the crowd, and we'd chat about my session and swap some coding stories. No chance to do that when my sessions happen at the end of the conference!

I was also worried that people would go home early, and no one would be around to come to my sessions. Fortunately that wasn't the case. Both of my talks were quite well attended, and people stayed behind a little bit to chat. Still, next time I would check the conference schedule as soon as it is published, and try to move my talk earlier. That way I get more time to hang out with people afterwards.

Hanging out

As always, I love hanging out with fellow Android developers at AnDevCon. Here is a group of us enjoying some seafood.

The next AnDevCon is back in Burlingame, from November 12 to 15. Hope to see you there!

Droidcon Tunis

My friend Corey Latislaw spoke at Droidcon Tunis last year, and really enjoyed it. This year she couldn't make it, but recommended me to the organizer. After a few email exchanges, I made the leap and bought a plane ticket to Tunis!

Mainz layover

There are not a lot of flights from San Francisco to Tunis, and I booked mine with Lufthansa, which had a 11-hour layover in Frankfurt. I took advantage of the time and visited Mainz, the birthplace of Gutenberg.

Gutenberg Museum

The Gutenberg Museum showcases the history of printing, with a few rare specimens of the Gutenberg bible. It also covered the printing techniques from East Asia, and there is circular movable type storage stand for Chinese newspaper printing with rows and rows of neatly sorted characters. I had always wanted to see that since a little kid, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to bump into it in Germany.

Tunis sightseeing

I arrived Tunis around midnight, and went for some sightseeing the next day. My first destination was the Bardo Museum, which is famous for its collection of Roman mosaics.

Roman mosaic at Bardo Museum

I really enjoyed the mosaics. They were made from tiny pieces of colored tiles, depicting the Roman life and mythology in a durable format. Some of the pieces were put on the floor, where they were meant to be, but I still feel like I should not tread on such beautiful art.

After the museum I headed to the medina, the old town of Tunis.

Tunis medina

The medina is a maze alleyways lined with blue-and-white houses, traditional markets and towering minarets. I got quite lost in the beginning. Fortunately I found a walking tour map on the wall to orient myself.

Map for the medina

It was a lot of fun exploring the nooks and crannies of the medina, stumbling upon an ornate door, a snack vendor hawking traditional sweets, or a group of cats sleeping.

Carthage and Sidi Bou Said

The next day I took a train to visit Carthage and Sidi Bou Said.

My first stop was the Carthage Museum. Not a lot to see here, since most of the mosaics were moved to Tunis. However I really liked the Acropolium next door.

Acropolium

Didn't look like much from the outside, but I love the style inside.

Acropolium

I then walked to the Roman theater and the Roman villa, before ending my tour at Antonine Baths.

Antonine Baths

The sheer size of the ruins were mind-boggling. The Romans sure loved their baths!

After Carthage I took the train further to Sidi Bou Said, a picturesque little town in blue and white.

Sidi Bou Said

It was such a joy to walk around and soak in all the blue and white. Every corner was stunningly pretty.

Sidi Bou Said

In the evening I went back to Tunis for a nice traditional meal: couscous.

Couscous with fish

I had a set dinner with appetizer, main course and dessert, only 7.5 dinars. That's less than 5 USD!

Droidcon Tunis

On Saturday I headed to the science city for Droidcon Tunis.

Droidcon Tunis poster

The conference opened with a violin performance. Classy!

After a full day of workshops, the organizers made us a nice traditional barbecue.

BBQ dinner

I gave my talk on the next day. The Tunisian crowd is really energetic, and we had lots of audience participation. That's the way I like my talks!

I was going to attend some other talks, but ended up doing some pair programming with a fellow attendee in the hallway.

Pair programming

I managed to go to the USB talk by Miki, which was quite a blast. Literally - he brought a missile launcher!

Miki demoing the USB missile launcher

The conference concluded with a rock-and-roll performance. Yup, the Tunisians sure know how to have fun. They are such a friendly crowd, but also very driven to advance their technical skills. The energy made all the difference. Thank you Taher and the volunteers for putting this together!

Epilogue

After the conference we all went out for coffee. And then the organizers wanted to show us some traditional food, so we drove around town in the middle of the night, finally found a place still open, for some phenomenal ojja merguez. It was so yummy that we simply could not stop eating!

Ojja merguez

Bonus link: more photos from the trip.

ConFoo

Before I started speaking I always wonder how people know about the conferences. Turns out most information is still disseminated in the traditional way: word of mouth. And that is how I heard about CooFoo: from other speakers. Specifically, I heard about it when I was in Amsterdam for Dutch Mobile Conference. They told me ConFoo is a very well-run conference covering a variety of technologies, and they treat speakers very well. So I followed ConFoo on Twitter, waited for the CFP, and submitted three talks. Two of the got accepted, which brought me to Montreal two weeks ago.

Ten tracks

I was a bit overwhelmed when I first looked at the program. There are ten tracks going on at the same time! Lots and lots of different technologies, and I often wanted to go to two talks in the same slot.

When there were conflicts, I often picked based on speakers. I know both Sandi Metz and Katrina Owen are great speakers, so I made sure went to their talks. They have great content in their talks, but they also pay great attention to delivery, bringing us on a journey through out the talk.

I also tried to go to talks which will expand my horizons. Creative Machines by Joseph Wilk was a great example. I got to hear about AARON, a machine that was trained by a painter over 40 years. The results are quite amazing.

Sample work by AARON

Overview and deep dive

I gave two talks at ConFoo: Fluid Android Layouts and Mobile Caching Strategies. Mobile Caching Strategies is a high-level talk, no code at all, so I knew it would work well in a general conference like ConFoo.

Fluid Android Layouts is a deep dive, and I found it difficult to cater to the different levels of experience in the audience. To make sure everyone can follow along, I went over some Android basics at the beginning. But I also provided code samples so the Android developers in the crowd had something to take home.

Well-run conference

ConFoo covers so many topics, and yet manages to keep the environment very intimate. There was plenty of opportunities to mingle with everyone, including very nice sit down lunches everyday.

Nice lunch!

There were volunteers at each session to help the speakers set up, give timing signals, and collect feedback forms at the end. Overall everything is well-communicated, and the organizers make sure everyone is having a good time. Bravo!

The organizers

Sugar Shack

With three conference days and ten tracks, there were a lot of speakers. The organizers arranged quite a few activities for us, one of which is to visit a traditional sugar shack. It was an hour drive from Montreal, in an idyllic setting among the snow.

Sugar shack

We sat down in a wooden cabin and ate everything with maple syrup: bread, soup, sausages, frittata, meat balls, pancakes, coffee, just everything. I got to hang out with many different speakers, and not surprisingly, I already knew a few of them through various conferences, notably Dutch Mobile Conference.

Nuit Blanche

I decided to stay an extra night to do some sightseeing. It happens to be Nuit Blanche, the winter celebration. There were activities all over the city. We started by exploring the underground passageways, which were running an art exhibition. My favorite is by Baillat Cardell & Fils, which consists of a box with a mirror and a few tubes in front of it. But it was cleverly arranged that it looks like you are gazing into a tunnel.

Ici

We came up from underground and went to a square sprinkled with glowing snowballs. They were translucent ping-pong balls stuffed with an LED light, and so much fun to play! People juggled them, buried them in snow, and of course, threw them at each other. Such a brilliant idea!

LED snowballs

At 9 o'clock there were fireworks. Afterwards we mingled among the crowd and checked out the various food vendors. The most interested one had open fire pits. People bought sausages and marshmallows to roast in them.

Open fire pit

There was so much going on I couldn't describe it all. We saw fire dances, light shows, projections, blacksmithing, glass blowing... the whole city was awake until the wee hours. We couldn't believe it when we got back to the hotel - it was already 2am!