Ayogi in the Spotlight: Darryl Pogue

Q&A with Ayogo Mobile Web App Developer Changing Health IT!

Name: Darryl Pogue

Title: Software Developer, Ayogo Health Inc.

Fun Fact: On Twitter, people sometimes confuse me with New York Times tech columnist, David Pogue. When there is a new social network it becomes a bit of a race to see who gets the username dpogue first (with the exception of gMail, I’m winning).

Hobbies: I always have a few coding side-projects on the go, and a long list of hiking trips I want to do.

Personal Website: dpogue.ca

Each month we place an Ayogi in the spotlight. This month, meet Darryl—a software developer at Ayogo who is changing mobile web app development in healthcare.
Darryl first studied programming as a hobby and began to build websites around the time of the dotcom bust. He went on to study general computer systems with a specialization in data communications and internetworking at BCIT. Through their co-op program Darryl was introduced to Ayogo in 2009:
“I started as a co-op student after my first year at BCIT. After the interview, Paul Prescod, Ayogo’s CPO immediately put me to work to fix up some stuff on the Ayogo website. I worked here over the summer we were building Healthseeker, when Ayogo first entered the games for health space. When I graduated the following year I emailed Paul to mention I was done and that I had heard they were in a big crunch…turns out I had just caught them after the crunch but they were able to bring me on to start some new projects.”
Fast forward a few years and Darryl is developing software on the server side and client app side to build out Ayogo’s Empower framework using mobile web technologies: “Most of our apps are written in JavaScript, which is one of the web technologies, and then packaged up for mobile devices. My expertise is in Cordova, the tool we use for packaging our apps. And the state of JavaScript support across devices. I’m also familiar with our server-side code, so I’m a bit of a full-stack developer.”
Q: What are you hoping to achieve while at Ayogo?

What I really like to do and what I really like about the work that we do is that we push the boundaries of web technologies. Not just in terms of doing really cool innovative stuff in healthcare but also from a technological standpoint: we are always pushing for apps that look better, perform better, that have more animations and effects. When mobile devices first started coming out mobile web wasn’t really a thing and there was this mentality that building with web technologies would never feel right and never perform as well as native apps. I like to dispel those myths.

Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge in developing behavior changing software for the healthcare industry?

Most of the challenges with behavior change are less technological issues and more about how do you properly craft and pace content. In terms of software, one challenge can be having to support older versions of operating systems while trying to take advantage of the latest features.

Q: What advice do you have for those who are looking to start their career in software development?

The one thing that I had wish I’d known while I was at BCIT was about the great tech meetup scene that we have here in Vancouver. There are tech meetups for everything! Start going to meetups and chatting with people and you’ll hear a really good exchange of ideas and get to know other people in the community. I’d recommend VanJS, VanAngular, CSS Brigade, and the monthly Code & Coffee Meetup.

Want to work with Darryl? Check out our Career page!
Interested in a co-op term with Ayogo? Talk to us!
Want to learn more about Empower? Talk to an expert!