Brent Simmons

Brent Simmons has been writing apps for Apple computers for over 30 years, since his first Apple II Plus in 1980. His professional apprenticeship was at UserLand Software where he worked on Frontier and on Manila, an early blog platform. Later he created apps such as NetNewsWire, TapLynx, Glassboard, and MarsEdit. Brent lives in Seattle with his wife Sheila and his cat Papa, who’s named for both Ernest Hemingway and the great designated hitter Edgar Martinez.

SESSION(S): Closing Address: Beyond the Gold Rush

The App Store gold rush wasn’t really a gold rush — it’s the new How Things Are. It’s bigger than a gold rush. What does that mean? How do we developers and designers prepare for it?

SESSION(S): UI Master Crit

So, you have an app you're working on, and you're looking for some advice on the user interface. A critique. Well, this is your lucky day! We're looking for four (brave) souls, willing to face the ultimate UI review panel. You'll show your app, and our panel will offer their opinions on the user interface and provide you with advice on how to make it better. This is all about the UI, not about the functionality of the app itself. Everyone in the audience will learn from our august panel of experts how to enhance the user's experience.

The three alleged experts are:
Bill Van Hecke, who is the user experience lead at Omni Group.
Graeme Devine, who has promised to wear his tin foil hat.
Jason Festa, who, as a Creative Director at Disney Mobile, brings a different point of view.