Its increasingly commonplace for conferences (both tech and otherwise) to offer delegates a mobile app.
These promise to help them find talks and make connections, but in practice, often fail to deliver.
Nobody is more aware of this right now than the UKs Conservative Party.
Its a high-security affair, with much of Birminghams city center transformed into a heavily-policed ring of steel.
Some individuals decided to update the accounts they accessed.
Michael Goves profile picture was updated to show Rupert Murdoch, while Johnsons displayed hardcore pornography.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
But as someone who goes to a lot of technology conferences, whats interesting is how unsurprising it is.
Conference apps are as close as youll get to disposable software.
Theyre like Pampers diapers; used once, then discarded.
As a result, they seldom have the polish you might expect from a commercial piece of code.
I have strong feelings about conference apps.
Thats because Ive had a disproportionate amount of exposure to them.
Whats interesting is how the same design and usability mistakes crop up every time.
Or, what if the event takes place somewhere with hardly any mobile reception?
And what if the venue s Wi-Fi is overloaded with users and slows to a crawl?
All of those scenarios can render a conference app completely useless.
And with events resorting on apps to save on printing costs, you could be left in the dark.
Stuart Miniman (@stu)September 14, 2018
In theory, this sounds like a good idea.
People pay top dollar to attend events, meet people, and create new opportunities.
Why not help them along?
Sadly, this seldom plays out in practice.
In my experience, the social features on most conference apps are half-baked and dont work particularly well.
Thats not the fault of the developers.
I happen to feel sorry for them.
For starters, theyre up against a hard, immovable deadline.
And finally this is as much my personal opinion as anything else but apps kinda suck, dont they?
I immensely dislike having to download separate app for every conference.
They inevitably suck & clog up phone.
s/o build better solution ?
Conference apps seldom treat Android and iOS users equally, with one inevitably having an inferior experience.
And at the end of the event, youve got to remember to delete them.
So, whats the alternative?
But they are the exception, not the rule.
For events with just a few thousand attendees, there are much more sensible options.
One option is to have everything written down in a brochure, which participants can recycle after the event.
Alternatively, event organizers can publish information about talk schedules and locations online.
I bloody hate conference apps.
They meet no real user needs.
All anyone wants to know is the agenda.
Conference organisers: stop making shit apps and just put the schedule on the web.
But if you absolutely must have an app, consider making it aprogressive web app.
These are standard websites that double as mobile applications, looking and feeling the part.
Not only do they support things like push notifications, but they can also work offline.
