Windows 8, Windows reshaped for applications and touch

Windows 8 uses a new UI to reshape windows, making new windows more suitable for the most popular fingertip touch operations. Windows 8 will run on a wide range of devices, such as tablets, touch-screen laptops, desktops with touch-screen installation, and Windows 8 will operate in App Store-based mode, this is an unprecedented opportunity for developers. Excellent Windows Store applications will be evaluated by millions of users around the world.

Application king

Windows Store applications are the core of Windows 8 experience. The content in these applications will be dynamic and dynamic. Users will immerse themselves in full-screen Windows Store applications, allowing them to focus on the content rather than the operating system itself. Publishing an application in the Windows 8 app store means that you will cover the global user base of Windows. With the support of the latest Visual Studio development tool, you will develop and deploy applications more efficiently, and get a higher return. In Windows 8, you can use your existing skills and code basics to create windows UI-style applications for users.

● Web developers can use HTML5, css3, and JavaScript for application development and support third-party JavaScript libraries.

● Microsoft. NET Framework and Silverlight developers can use XAML, C #, and VisualBasic skills.

● Developers seeking to maximize the effects of games and other graphics-intensive applications can use Microsoft DirectX 11

.

Windows 8 reduces the difficulty of building full-screen Windows Store applications, provides flexible and easy-to-use space, built-in animations, and layout options, and enables your applications to provide a fast and smooth experience.

Features of Windows Store applications

Specifically, the windowsui style displayed on the touch screen is not only an application platform, but also a design philosophy that helps you build an application that focuses on content and forms and is fascinating and easy to use, the intuitive and universal interaction mode of such applications will provide a pleasant user experience.

Windows UI design guidelines

Good Windows Store applications must comply with the following general guidelines:

● Content over form. Content is the core of Windows Store applications. Putting content in the most prominent position is the basis for designing Windows Store applications. All other elements are called form or decoration. They help content presentation and application interaction.

● Fast and smooth. User interaction and transition should be fast and intuitive, and animation should be well thought out and purposeful.

● Supports multiple tasks. Windows Store applications support full-screen immersive experience, as well as "secondary screen" view with a small area attached to the side of the screen when multiple applications are running simultaneously.

● Use the contract correctly. The contract provides an interactive approach for applications to allow users to search across applications or share content between applications. As a user adds more contract-supporting applications to a PC, the user experience will be improved accordingly.

● Dynamic tile. When the application is not running, the application displays practical information in the application tile on the "Start" screen.

● Set roaming to the cloud. A superior and continuous experience will be provided no matter where you log on.

Following these guidelines will make your applications more practical, visually appealing, and help you provide consistent and familiar experiences to users.

Contract

Contract is a mechanism that allows users to perform seamless search and sharing across unrelated applications. With the help of contract, you can save the effort to study various standards and APIs for specific applications, directly access data stored or created by other applications, and keep users in your brand experience, to expand the practicality of the application. In addition to the Contract supported by the target application, you do not need to know any related information about it.

Contracts supported by Windows 8 include:

● Search. When you implement a search contract, you can not only search for the content in your application, but also search for the content in other applications that support the search contract.

● Sharing. A sharing contract allows you to share the content of an application with other applications or services, or share the content of other applications or services with your applications.

● Play. You can support the "play to" contract to help users play digital media to Windows-certified dlna devices in your application.

● Inter-application call. You can drag and drop files from one application to another.

● Settings. Setting quick access in the context will affect the user's application experience, including whether your application can access the user's location.

● Print. Allows users to print content on a Windows-compatible printer-almost all printers are supported.

Fast and smooth

In Windows 8, a touch-optimized platform is created for you to interact in a more intuitive way. The interaction between applications and operating systems and UI elements is more natural and rapid.

● Built-in animation library. Allows you to create a smooth dynamic experience through a dynamic and unique predefined animation. With 3D deformation, you can add a smooth and smooth visual experience, such as perspective conversion or flip elements inside and outside the screen.

● Flexible layout options. It makes the application easy to layout and remains highly consistent with Windows 8. The flexible box feature of css3 allows you to create a proportionally scalable container to fill up the remaining space in the layout. The grid layout is available in HTML5 and XAML, and allows you to set the position and size of content elements in a fixed, fractional, or automatic unit-defined grid structure. The content in the grid can be horizontally or vertically oriented. Multi-column layout can be used to simulate complex la s, such as those seen in newspapers or magazines.

● Semantic scaling. It is a touch-optimized method and a very attractive feature on Windows 8. It is widely used in navigation of large-scale content sets. You can pan or scroll through the content and zoom in or out to view details or summary. Compared with traditional layout modes such as Tab tabs, this mechanism is superior in terms of content, touch, vision, and information.

 

Multiple Input formats

Windows 8 easily supports a variety of compound operation applications by following the principle of "designed for touch, compatible with mouse and keyboard. All operation commands on Windows 8 can be completed by the mouse and keyboard, so that even if your computer does not support touch screen operations, you can use Windows 8 systems and applications on the platform perfectly.

The pointer API allows you to use any input method (mouse, keyboard, pen, touch) without understanding the source of input data. More advanced APIs allow you to use predefined Touch gestures and detect multi-touch events in applications. You can build custom Touch gestures at the same time or use APIs with specific inputs to provide a unique experience in your application.

Dynamic tile with real-time connection

Through the tile in the "Start" screen, the application will be dynamic at any time and provide dynamic content (even if the application is not yet running ). With dynamic tile, your application can provide users with practical summary data and minimize battery consumption. The Windows push notification service (WNS) allows your applications to send messages to dynamic stickers of applications or send notifications to users.

 

 

This article is excerpted from "go beyond imagination-Windows 8 Application Design and Development (full color)"

Edited by Zhu Hong, Yan Guangyu, and Li mengxiao

Published by Electronic Industry Publishing House