ReactiveConf Special Edition

There are plenty of ways to get information on and access to the latest trends and technologies, but going to conferences is sure one with great benefits. You can not only get top experts giving you hints and tools to improve your workflow, but you can further build your network and get hands-on experience on the spot. Fortunately, there are numerous quality events within and beyond our borders and ReactiveConf is most certainly one of them. It takes place in the beautiful city of Prague and is the ultimate spot for the European tech community to get the latest global insights in web & mobile development through meaningful connections and shared experiences. We were among last year’s attendees and we even went backstage to interview some of the speakers, so that we could share all the great information on their hands with you too.

In this episode of the Special Edition TechTalk series Necoline Hubner Software Engineer at Development Seed and Balázs Komár Co-Founder of IseeQ and xLabs talk all about the next billion users, the limitations they face on a daily basis and the key elements that developers should take into account when developing for these specific markets.

Necoline doesn’t originally come from a tech background, she actually started out in Linguistics, worked in Refugee Affairs, studied International Affairs and only started to learn to code when she’d discovered the potential in it to help the non-profit organisations she was working with. In 2018, she was working at an organisation, where they built apps for aid workers in refugee camps and that’s where she truly “started to understand what kind of conditions people in more rural environments dealt with, and in order for them to accomplish their goals and put these tools in their hands, [they] had to make some important considerations in terms of performance and offline capabilities” as she puts it. Beyond that, she’s come to the realization that these are the conditions that actually many users face everyday, and so overtime she’s been trying to expand her understanding of how they – as developers – can include that in their development processes.

The everyday limitations that users in Third World Countries face are those that we wouldn’t even think of here in the West. One example is that in India, people use phones with small storage, meaning that they have just enough space for about four applications, so they actually have to determine which are the most useful ones for them to keep. Necoline goes onto mentioning low battery life as another, while she tells us how surprised she was to find out about the willingness of the people to delete apps. If we were to go through all of our applications on our phones, we’d definitely find a few that we haven’t used for a while or ever, yet we still keep them. Well, just because we can. But Necoline tells us that for those people with small storage, deleting an app is somewhat an automatic reaction to make space for new ones, in order to have their phones up and running. “So, it’ll take time to retrain these users to realise that – as our apps are getting smaller and more data conscious – they won’t have that need” she adds. That’s why it’s really important to talk about user retention in regards to the next billion users. Another condition that people in Third World Countries experience on a daily basis is the shockingly high price of data, which is based on the lack of infrastructure that might interfere with technology. Due to which, there’s a limited number of providers present, meaning that people don’t have a choice but to settle for the high costs. And we haven’t even mentioned the phenomenon of internet freedom and the external forces that obstruct our use of the internet, like throttling.

Considering the future and the potential improvements that could be made regarding this matter, one might think of Elon Musk’s plan to launch thousands of satellites into orbit in the next few years, which could potentially reduce the ground work to develop a sustainable infrastructure plan that could support advanced technologies. As Necoline tells us, she genuinely thinks that “these grand schemes are wonderful things to hope for but in the meantime we shouldn’t forget about the everyday practices that will make immediate benefit to the users”. As for those developing specifically for these markets, she gives the following tips: know how much data your app is going to use, get initial cashing, make sure the UI is very communicative (fast and responsive).

Would you like to know more about this topic?

Then you should listen to the full podcast episode because surely there is more information you do not want to keep unheard.

If you are interested in other topics as well, you should keep following our BLOG where we are coming with new professional content every week.

Are you looking for tech or business experts to hire?

As professional headhunters, we are here to help you with all your IT and Business recruitment needs. Give us a shout!