Podcast #14: Natalie Podrazik—iOS developer and user-research spy
Podcast #14: Natalie Podrazik—iOS developer and user-research spy
Photo courtesy Natalie Podrazik
Paul Ford and Rich Ziade talk to Natalie Podrazik about, in Paul’s words, “the gestalt of iOS programming.” Natalie traces her journey from studying comp-sci to backend programming to developing for Apple devices, where the title “engineer” often encompasses design and user experience alongside writing code. Also discussed: what it’s like to go to WWDC, the glories of the MTA’s Bus Time, and the fact that Natalie has probably watched you play Candy Crush on the subway.
Natalie: It is so rad. It’s like the first week of school, and everybody is wearing their backpacks, and they’re so excited about all the new technologies, and then they go downstairs in the basement, and all the Apple developers are there, and you can ask them questions, almost any kind of questions! And they’re there, and they’re just waiting for you to ask the questions, and you can tell they only come out of their offices really one week a year to do this kind of thing, and they’re so excited to talk to you, and you’re so excited to talk to them. And the internet’s really fast. It’s so fun. It’s great!
Paul has broken dreams and access to the MTA Bus Time API:
Paul: I’m going to make a confession but I’m going to ask you guys first: have you ever looked at Bus Time when you’re not going to take a bus?
Natalie: Negative.
Paul: What about you?
Rich: I looked at the apps, yes. I was just impressed by the whole thing!
Paul: I have a big window in my house and I look out and I see the buses go back and forth. I’ll occasionally just sort of check out Bus Time, just to see what the status of the B68 route is.
Rich: Awww. Carly Simon’s playing in the background?
Paul: A little bit of that. And there’s also an element of like, there’s a fantasy element, I think especially since I had the kids, of like, I could just go downstairs, get on the B68 in 3 to 5 minutes, and go to Coney Island, smoke a cigarette, drink a beer, look at the ocean. But not really gonna happen because I have two twins sitting in the other room who can’t really tolerate me being away for eight hours.
Rich: Right. But this podcast isn’t about Bus Time.
How being an iOS developer is broad-ranging and complicated
Natalie: In my day job I’m literally, you know, solving data-animation, image-related bugs that come in. And I’m doing very technical, code-related work. But in my commute to and from every day, I’m just kind of stepping back and I’m watching the world around me, and thinking, like, I have to pay attention. I have to remember how people are actually using the things that I work on to be good at this.
Natalie: …They call it ‘iOS Developer; but really you’re an iOS product person. You have to know the whole package. You have to understand what people are going through when they use this product. You have to kind of understand all the design problems, all the user-experience problems, all the data problems, all of the, you know, past versions of iOS problems, all of Apple’s intentions going forward. You just have to have a lot on your shoulders, and it’s kind of a lot, you know?
Track Changes is the weekly technology and culture podcast from Postlight, hosted by Paul Ford and Rich Ziade. Coordination, research, and management by Elizabeth Minkel, who also prepared the summary of this episode. Production and editing by Tom Meyers. Podcast logo and design by Matt Quintanilla of Postlight. We record with Paul Ruest at Argot Studios. Listen to more episodes here.
