Breaking Development In Nashville

This month I attended the Breaking Development Conference, which focuses on Web Design and Development for Mobile Devices. It was held at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, TN. The biggest and most breathtaking resort I’ve even stayed in. The hallways in this place reminded me of the movie The Shining. I literary kept looking for a kid riding a Big Wheel up and down the hallways saying “Redrum”!

Breaking Development did an excellent job of gathering the leaders in Mobile Web Design and Development. With, of course my favorite, Luke Wroblewski, the author of Mobile First, Jeremy Keith, Dave Olson and Steve Souders just to name a few of the brilliant minds that were presenting.

Another Mobile Web advocate we should all have our eyes on is Scott Jenson. His presentation on Why Mobile Apps Must Die, based on his article App Myopia, was mind blowing for a forward thinker like myself. We are so comfortable with the desktop paradigm, something that most Web Developers already know and feel safe developing for. But this leads to “Default Thinking” when considering mobile design and development. “This approach blinds us to other ways of looking at the deeper potential of mobile.” – Scott Jenson

A few of the presentations were more philosophical rather than the technical presentations I was expecting. A deeper dive into what mobile is and how today’s Web Designers and Developers are breaking the web by considering desktop strategy when developing mobile applications. We should be eliminating any unnecessary overhead that stems from desktop frameworks. We should keep in mind that mobile is not unlimited power and a constant connection. Performance is a key consideration as well.

I’ve never felt so much energy and geekery under one roof in all my nerdy life. I want to give a shout out to my new friends @jensbits, @karacita1, @toddbudnikas and @casron. One of my favorite things about going to conferences is meeting new people and jumping on hotel beds.

If there’s one takeaway from Breaking Development, it’s that we are all striving for universal access to information regardless of device. — Brad Frost