Don’t Reinvent the Wheel Zach Boerger February 2012

Leverage What Already Exists

What’s out there? APIs jQuery Libraries Frameworks Templates

AP-what? API = Application Programming Interface Give developers access to the feature set of an existing product

Top APIs Facebook + Twitter Google Maps Foursquare Twilio

Before you build a “cool” feature, Google it

Open-source is your friend

So is GithubGithub

jQuery Scrollable

Other Examples Auto-save user input on your forms Create bar graphs on the fly (client-side) Anything else you can build!

Frameworks

Popular Ones Ruby on Rails Django + Python PHP + CodeIgniter

Reasoning Logical, consistent layout for projects Eliminates up-front “setup” time Take advantage of what’s already included

Templates & Boilerplates

Twitter Bootstrap

HTML5 + Mobile Boilerplate

Conclusion To quickly test an idea, leverage what’s already out there Go back and re-design later if needed Don’t waste time on stuff that’s already been done