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RubyConf AU 2013: http://www.rubyconf.org.au

Social app development challenges us how to code for users' personal world. Users are giving push-back to ill-fitted assumptions about their identity — including name, gender, sexual orientation, important relationships, and other attributes they value.
How can we balance users' realities with an app's business requirements?
Facebook, Google+, and others are grappling with these questions. Resilient approaches arise from an app's own foundation. Discover schemas' influence over codebase, UX, and development itself. Learn how we can use schemes to both inspire users and generate data we need as developers.

Slides for my RubyConfAU talk, "Schemas for the Real World" are at slideshare.net/cczona/schemas-for-the-real-world-rubyconf-au-201302
It includes a Resources page with links to source material for this talk, and additional reading if you'd like to explore more on this topic. Enjoy!

Links to the most recent videos & slides for "Schemas for the Real World" are maintained at cczona.com/blog/talks/ This talk is constantly in evolution; so each iteration expands topics and adds new visuals/examples.
However, the version recorded here at RubyConfAU has the best Q&A session (starts at time mark 31:55). Australians are great at raising terrifically challenging questions.

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In her talk at RubyConf AU 2013, Carina C. Zona addresses the complex intersection of social app development and users' identities, emphasizing the need for schemas that reflect real-world diversity. Zona highlights the inadequacies in traditional data normalization practices when applied to sociological aspects of human behavior, warning against reducing personal identities to simple lists or binary options. Key points include:  
- **User Inclusion**: Modern social apps face challenges from users who feel marginalized by one-size-fits-all identity fields in forms. Incorporating varied identities is crucial for engagement.  
- **Beyond Normalization**: Database normalization may clash with the intricate nature of user identities; developers must accommodate the messy reality of human relationships.  
- **Diverse Data Collection**: Zona advocates for open-ended fields rather than closed options. Examples such as Metafilter illustrate how allowing users to express themselves freely results in richer, more authentic data collection.  
- **Complexity in Human Relationships**: Traditional relational models struggle to represent multi-faceted identities. Platforms like Facebook, upon user feedback, expanded identity options to better reflect real-world complexities.  
- **Trust and Flexibility**: By trusting users and avoiding mandatory fields, developers foster a more engaged community. Free-form responses can lead to unexpectedly valuable insights that are often overlooked in standardized surveys.  
- **Data Analysis and Discoveries**: Ultimately, data should be viewed as a means for user expression rather than just for analytics. Methods like machine learning can offer ways to analyze free-form inputs and uncover trends.  
In conclusion, Zona insists that developers must prioritize user experience and expressiveness over rigid schemas, ultimately leading to communities that feel more inclusive and supportive. Engagement and loyalty stem from allowing users to contribute authentically to their online personas. The talk highlights the necessity of evolving traditional approaches to meet the diverse needs of users in social apps, advocating for a balance between structure and chaos in data collection.

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