Razurblade Labs, a non-profit open device lab plans to open its doors to the public by July 30, 2013 in midtown Atlanta, Ga. The lab is an initiative to bring awareness of development best practices and application testing to the developer community, as well as students who have a focus on computer science, information technology or digital design.
As the demand for mobile and web applications continues to increase, so does the focus on user experience design, cross-platform solutions and responsive design. By testing applications on the physical devices in the ODL, developers and students can see how their applications function on multiple devices and how changes to aesthetics can improve the overall user experience per device.
"Today every application needs to undergo extensive testing on various devices and multiple versions of operating systems before development to increase commercial success," says Razurblade Labs founder Garth Lyerly. "If your application does not function correctly or suffers from excessive crashes on certain devices you lose market share and the visibility of millions of users."
Razurblade Labs plans to offer developers and students scheduled blocks of testing time so they can spend one to eight hours at a time testing their applications or designs. Additionally, educational classes, meetup groups and hackathons will be held at the Razurblade lab for the public to learn more about the future of web, mobile, and social technology within a community-driven environment.Through partnerships and sponsorships Razurblade Labs expects to acquire at least 25 popular devices within two to three months while expanding to 60 devices by end of year. Such devices will include mobile phones, mobile tablets, gaming consoles, smart TVs and cutting-edge human-interactive components.
