In case you weren’t able to attend the Windows 8 Developer Event in Chicago this week, here are some of the key topics you missed.
Content was a primary focus. The main phrase used was “Content over Chrome.” Chrome is the user interface we’ve been using in Windows from Vista onwards. All applications run full-screen with no frames or scroll bars. Instead, the UI is made up of tiles that either launch applications or contain information from them, such as weather, time and date, latest restaurants, news feeds, and so on. So the phrase “Content over Chrome” means prioritize the content of an application over the UI of the application. Here is an example of the new UI.
Toast notifications and Contracts were also discussed as great features for developers. Toast notifications allow applications (when configured), to send pop-up alerts and notifications in a consistent manner. Contracts (sometimes also called “Charms”) are the built-in features of the OS: search, share (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and so on), settings, login. Developers can leverage these built-in capabilities to provide all of that with virtually no code. No one will need to code a login for Facebook or Twitter; it’s provided in the OS for you.
As for design, “less is more”. The idea for developers now is to develop the least amount in an application that you can. To be successful, go through the following 5 step process:
- Determine what your application does best.
- Determine what things it should be able to do in order to continue to do its best.
- Remove the things that are tangentially associated with what makes the application its best
- Design the layout: hierarchical or flat
- Develop the application
It was explained that for too long we have taught users how to use the application/os, and not how to use thecontent. We have relied on menus and sub-menus, commands and short-cut keys and so on for far too long. Now we’re going back to the basics: swiping, semantic zooming, and shrinking of objects instead, with contextual commands in the application bar.
We will have a few other notes to share! Stay tuned!
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