DPL Reading List – June 17, 2016
Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading around this office this week.
Apple Will Require HTTPS Connections For iOS Apps By The End Of 2016 – “At the end of 2016, Apple will make ATS mandatory for all developers who hope to submit their apps to the App Store. App developers who have been wondering when the hammer would drop on HTTP can rest a little easier now that they have a clear deadline, and users can relax with the knowledge that secure connections will be forced in all of the apps on their iPhones and iPads.”
Designers Will Design, Developers Will Develop, And Why You Must Stop Them (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “When talking to my team, I should have given a lot more context about the constraints of the project. We really couldn’t afford the time and cost overruns. We needed things to be as “off-the-shelf” as possible so that we could ship the product.”
Designing More Efficient Forms (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “In an ideal world, users will diligently fill out all the fields with detailed, relevant information. In the real world, users don’t. Every additional field presents another barrier to the user.”
How To Keep Your Open Office From Killing Creativity – “Our office space shouldn’t make us feel claustrophobic, nor should we liken our workdays to spending time in a kindergarten classroom. If we are going to make workspaces smaller, then we can expand private spaces and structure our offices to increase productivity, imagination, and collaboration.”
How To Discover Your Purpose (Thanks to Brian Zimmer for recommending this article) – “Purpose is made of three elements. Who you are, which provides the predisposition. What the world needs, which provides the point. And what you feel, which provides the passion.”
Maintainable Code Vs Common Code (Thanks to Nathan Wilkinson for recommending this article) – “Maintainable code is code that can be modified cheaply, quickly, and with low risk. Common code is code that conforms to the group’s standards or, absent that, to common industry practice. Writing maintainable code is an important competitive advantage, from a business perspective. Writing common code is common courtesy to your teammates.”
Agility Requires Safety (Thanks to Jarrod Wubbels for recommending this article) – “For cars on a highway, high-speed driving requires safety. In order to drive a car faster, you need safety mechanisms such as brakes, seat belts, and airbags that ensure the driver will be unharmed in case something goes wrong. For software, agility requires safety. There is a difference between making intelligent tradeoffs and throwing all caution to the wind and charging blindly ahead. You need safety mechanisms that ensure those changes cannot do too much damage in case something goes wrong.”
