Ben Galbraith's Blog

A Desktop Application Developer's Conference?

(cross-posted on Married... with children)

I've already talked about the Ajax conference that we over at Ajaxian.com are producing (May 10-12 in San Francisco; won't you join us?). As I contemplate the great fun that we'll have at that event, I've started thinking of my other love: desktop application development.

I spend the vast majority of my time developing Swing applications. I am more interested in desktop app development than pretty much any other programming discipline. As I work with other desktop application developers, I'm seeing a lot of gaps in our collective knowledge. Too many of us really don't understand good UI design principles. Often, we haven't taken the time to check out what our (WinForms, Cocoa, SWT, etc.) neighbors are up to. And, of course, wouldn't it be nice to learn more from others about how to use our toolkit of choice more effectively?

Do you think it would be a good idea to hold a 1-2 day Desktop Application Development conference? I'm thinking such an event should have at least a 50% focus on user interface design issues (i.e., interaction design) with the other bit being about how to get the bits to actually do the interaction. I'm also wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to invite all desktop application development disciplines to speak and attend. I for one would be fascinated to hear talks from various foreign GUI toolkits about how their stuff works and what they're up to.

Should it be a small, boutique, no-frills conference focused on intermediate/experts, or a larger, more general-interesting conference with a lot of introductory-level material? Should it have a Java-only focus, or is inviting the entire community interesting to you?

What do y'all think? Would holding such an event in the fall or winter of this year / early next year be a good idea?

Comments

• (Cross posted from your other blog :)

  Where is the registration form? I would love to attend such an event. Being a Swing developer, I did spend a lot of time learning other toolkits (QT, MFC, wxWdigets, Tk, GTK and now Cocoa) but it’s hard to find enough time and courage to do that. Anyways, I totally agree that at least 50% should be focused on user interface design (but please, targeted at developers, not designers I also think it’d be nice to have introductory material but meant for developers who already know how to develop GUIs (yes I know what a button or an event are). What’d be really cool would be to show side-by-side comparisons of major toolkits. Oh and lots of eye-candy!

  Posted by: gfx on April 24, 2006 at 10:40 PM

• Great idea! Unfortunatly I couldn't attend the conference (I'm fairly new in this job and not from the US), but I'd like to see that much information bundled in on place, maybe we webstreams or videos from the conference - so an enthusiastic beginner could learn from all of you senior professionals. :)

  Posted by: cringe on April 24, 2006 at 11:01 PM

• This is a great idea. I'd be interested in attending. I have about 15 years experience developing desktop applications. I'd focus on intermediates and keep the conference small, at first. Java is my preference, but its not required.

  Posted by: allanc on April 25, 2006 at 05:45 AM

• I'll add that if you piggyback this onto the NoFluffJustStuff traveling roadshow (Austin), I'd bring 5 or more.

  Posted by: allanc on April 25, 2006 at 05:45 AM

• My +1 :)

  Posted by: ildella on April 25, 2006 at 06:11 AM

• My $0.02...

  > small, boutique, no-frills [...] or a larger, [...] lot of
  > introductory-level material?
  Small (at first). Only because I feel the desktop community is small, and in order to get us to attend you'd have to offer something more than the introductory stuff.

  >Java-only focus, or [...] entire community?
  Entire community would be nice, but maybe pick Java and some .Net
  for the first one and then based on attendance, $$$, etc., decide to expand scope. Maybe throw in a SWT on Mac, or Cocoa session to get the Mac people to attend. God knows, they know UI's. :-)

  >the fall or winter of this year / early next year be a good idea?
  Woah! Get us all interested and then tell us to wait 1 year? ;-) I want to attend next month. Seriously though, if you scope it down, it might be easier to hold it sooner at a smaller scale. Gather real number on attendance, location, topic interest, etc. and then go bigger.

  I don't think there's another conference like this so the market is open to be taken. I've attended 2 NoFluff's in the last 2 years, so that weekend-only no nonsense format suits me fine.

  Posted by: vikdavid on April 25, 2006 at 06:57 AM

• I'm surprised something like this hasn't been done already. It's a great idea.

  Posted by: rabbe on April 25, 2006 at 07:38 AM

• Sounds like a great idea. And sorry for the plug here, but we are just releasing an app this week that you might be interested in Ben, it's called BuoyBuilder and can be found at www.buoybuilder.com. It's a new way to do Java GUIs, sort of like Apple's InterfaceBuilder, but for Swing.

  We feel very strongly that there is a time and place for Ajax-ified web apps, but that in many circumstances a rich client is what is called for.

  Posted by: 94jack on April 25, 2006 at 08:52 AM

• I'd definitely have some good sessions to give if you started up a desktop conference. I'd say the focus should be on usability and gui design, but not necessarily Java. I'd love to see what the WinForms, Cocoa, and GTK guys are up to. We all share a common goal: better desktop apps, so I think we'd have a lot to share. Definitely sign me up to speak.

  Posted by: joshy on April 25, 2006 at 09:22 AM

• I think its a large botique, its fun and informative. Defenitely, guidlines trough that are from behavioural research, focusing on usability and standards.

  How i wish i could attend that seminar...

  Posted by: almjeck on April 25, 2006 at 09:48 AM

• Great Idea! if you need help organizing, I'm game

  Posted by: jchenry on April 25, 2006 at 09:48 AM

• Oh, boy. That is a really good idea! I am all with you on this...

  Posted by: norb on April 25, 2006 at 09:59 AM

• Great idea! Maybe invite some WinForm experts to see how they tackle large scale desktop apps.

  Posted by: carcour on April 25, 2006 at 11:55 AM

• I think it would be important to decide what the purpose of the conference would be. I'm interested in building rich large-scale applications in Swing and any techniques I can learn to do that better would be of great interest to me. I'm not too interested in other client technologies even though I have used some in the past (swt, mfc, ...). The focus on interface design is somewhat appealing, although I think you either got it or you don't.

  Posted by: robjkc on April 25, 2006 at 03:26 PM

• Wonderful idea. I'll even bring a couple of coworkers and drag my boss with me. Having it as a NFJS extension would be an ideal setup.

  BTW, the biggest problem with NFJS is the schedule conflict; too many very interesting sessions at the same time.

  Aziz K.
  

  Posted by: appmath on April 25, 2006 at 05:03 PM

• > Should it be small, focused on intermediate/experts, or a larger with a lot of introductory-level material?

  My guess is start with the small option and grow it from there. You'll no doubt get heaps of feedback from the first year on the direction that delegates want to go in. My concern is that a larger introductory forum will duplicate a lot of material from the Desktop track at JavaOne and not explore the areas that JavaOne misses.

  I quite like the hands-on sessions like at the Agile conf. Basically you have a 2-3 hour session and you break into small groups to solve a given problem in a specific area. It's different from the JavaOne hands-on labs in that you do the work using marker pen and paper, and in small groups.

  I'm also really interested in desktop application architectures. There's a lot written on enterprise architectures but relatively little for the desktop. Stuff like desktop design patterns, etc.

  > Should it have a Java-only focus, or is inviting the entire community interesting to you?

  With regard to my comments about JavaOne above, definitely not restricted to Java only. I'm more interested in the intersection between say graphic design and code implementation. I'd love to hear Alan Cooper or someone of that calibre speak. There's also an HCI research thread in the academic world regarding user interaction idioms (e.g. new immersive interaction techniques, customised experiences for different users, etc), so by including that work you could differentiate this conf as the "cutting edge of desktop application design".

  > the fall or winter of this year / early next year

  Well I'm in Australia, and the chances of me getting to the US in the next 12 months is slim to none. So I expect to come to the 2nd annual conf instead. What would work best for internationals like me is make the conf the same time of year as JavaOne or Agile conf, etc, so then I can go to 2 or 3 back to back and make the trip more justifyable.

  Posted by: r_nagappan on April 25, 2006 at 06:24 PM

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