Mike Matas
Projects: Facebook: Paper, iPhone Maps, Nest Learning Thermostat
Matas is a user interface designer who was recruited by Apple to help refine software for the iPhone and iPad. His dazzling resume includes building the UI for Nest's Learning Thermostat, as well as Facebook's recent mobile app, called Paper.
Dong Nguyen
Projects: Flappy Bird
Nguyen was the developer behind the infamous and addicting Flappy Bird. After he pulled his game from the App Store, other developers began imitating this model of mobile gaming: create a simplistic character, have it fly through a number of basic obstacles, and watch the app climb the charts.
Sean Rad
Projects: Tinder
Rad is the founder of the popular mobile dating app Tinder. The use of swipes and cards to identify perfect matches has become an ideal format for displaying content on your phone. Other apps have adopted this same feature, such as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's Jelly, and the recently launched Swell.
Igor and Marko Pusenjak
Projects: Doodle Jump
The Pusenjak brothers celebrated the fifth anniversary of Doodle Jump last week. Their game was one of the first programs to crack 10 million downloads before Angry Birds came along. To date, Doodle Jump is still nestled comfortably in the top 50 paid app store charts.
Dennis Crowley
Projects: Foursquare
Foursquare founder and CEO Dennis Crowley helped usher in the popularity of location-based software. Crowley understood how important it would be for people to relay their exact locations to others. The app's emphasis on location data set the foundation for firms like Uber to strengthen their services.
Marco Arment
Projects: Instapaper
Instapaper was one of the first apps that enabled users to save something interesting and read it later on their phones. Marco Arment, a former Tumblr developer, launched the app in 2008, and it received rave reviews for its simplicity. More people are reading news and gathering information using their phones, and Instapaper was one of the first apps to embrace this emerging trend.
Loren Brichter
Projects: Tweetie, Letterpress
Loren was the first app developer to popularize or help create popular app features like pulling down to refresh a screen or the "cell swipe," the feature that lets you swipe on the screen to uncover a set of hidden buttons.
Amanda Wixted
Projects: FarmVille for iPhone
Wixted was one of the most influential game developers in the early days of apps. She's responsible for creating the first Pac-Man for iPhone game, as well as bringing Facebook's famous game FarmVille to the mobile platform.
Lisa Bettany
Projects: Camera+
Bettany's third-party camera app involves using the volume buttons as shutter buttons. Apple liked that idea so much, it eventually adopted the feature for its own camera app.
Matias Duarte
Projects: Android OS
Duarte joined Google in 2010 as the head of design for the conglomerate's operating system Android. His first project for Google was Android 3.0, also known as Honeycomb. His contributions to the development of Android focused on touch-screen tech.
Jony Ive
Projects: iOS 7
Ive was the creative mind behind the rehabilitation of Apple's OS design. His ideas for iOS 7 included a "flatter" look, with smoother transitions. The subtle tweaks and alterations were well recieved, and Ive helped usher in a new era of design at Apple.