In this tutorial we are going to see how to start planning for your
Windows Store application with some of the basic design principles and
prototyping the app before we start developing the application.
Planning Your Windows Store Application:
While planning the application first we need to think about the base
requirements and the features that makes the end user more attractive to
navigate and get the flow of the application. Also as a quick start
list all the things that are should be part of the application that the
users will be looking for. Let us take an example of an application
which is of managing the expenses of the monthly spending's.
Step 1 – Target your Audience
Windows Store Application should be selected based on the end users real
need on using this application which provides a greater support to the
developer. Not all the applications in the Windows Store reach the
larger audience rather the real need of solving a end users requirement
will always going to be a big hit for the app developer. So lets take
the above example of Managing the expenses of the spending’s that are
done on a monthly basis. Lets take a simple note pad and figure out the
list of things that are required to develop this application.
- Get user information on the amount entered is a Income or Expense
- Get User information on the amount entered is debit or credit
- Find out the nearest Bank Branches and let the user select the appropriate bank and branch or provide the user to enter the details manually
- Get description and comments on the purchase made if its expense or the source of income if it’s a Income
- Categorize the purchases made based on the month
- Report the details using a nice chart or graphical view
- List out options to export the data and send as a mail or store to local environment
- Provide options to list the category of Expenses
- Provide options to list the amount available in bank as balances.
Once we have listed out the requirement I would recommend to select a
few of the points that really suits the end users needs and focus on
that initially for the first version of the app development instead of
all the requirements which makes things complicated. In the above
scenario lets narrow down and get a scenario which best suits the
application as
- Gather user information of Income or Expenses
- List down the month expenses
- Export the expenses to Excel or other medium for Emailing
Step 2 – List out all User Activities to Support
This step is one of the critical step where we are going to decide which
user activity to be supported in the application which we are going to
develop. Basically make a flow which provides the developers around to
get a clear idea on the flow, which is that a good designed application
will have the flow that will easy to learn and have fewer interactions.
To start with first
- Create a flow like which comes first, what comes next?
- How should users navigate and move through the screens – basically use a storyboard to make the flow
- Create a quick prototype for your application.
- Create a list of interactions with Income or Expense
- Create a flow by providing user to navigate to the detail listing view of the transactions
- List out the transaction based on the month as a report
- Provide options to share the transactions
In this step we will target some of the Windows Store features that best
suits the application or also target using some of the third party
tools that can be used with the application. Get a complete idea on each
of the feature controls that are available with the Windows Store SDK
to get clear idea on how to use the control and feature which makes it
easier to select the best of the features in your application.
- Using Application Bar in your application
- Using Notifications in your application
- Using Tiles in your application
- Using App Tiles and Secondary Tiles in your application
- Using Camera and Extra Storage Devices in your application
- Using Geolocation in your application
- Using Accelerometers in your application.
- Use Application Bar for navigation and list out option to Expenses Listing and Budgeting
- Use Tiles and Notification to show the end user a summary of Expenses made and Balance available
- Use Notification to show the end user, if its time to add expenses and budgeting
User Experience is the one which gives the application a good feedback
from the end users, UI should be taken into priority by first
Prototyping the application and have a few look around with the team or
with the mentors to get some inputs from the end user perspective.
Mostly we create application which can be organized into a Hierarchical
or grouping format, so basically choosing the grouping will help us to
decide which page to create and which view to use to showcase our data.
We have multiple templates that are available with Visual Studio 2012
IDE.
Step 5 – Creating a good Impression
“First Impression is always a Best Impression” this is how in real time
each of the application gets succeeded in the market, So to create a
best Impression for the applications consider using the below features
to make a better application
- Splash Screen
- Tiles and Notification
- Background Image
- Sample data for First Launch
- About Screen with Support
If in our application we have plans to Monetize and do some advertising,
plan it according while designing the user interface with the
respective pages. Windows Store supports free apps and free-in apps
where Trial Period is used to even though the price is made free. We
need to take care on providing the Trail version duration, and also with
a upgrade option from moving the user from Trial Mode to Full Purchase
model based on the purchase from with in the application or through the
Windows Store.
Considering all the above design principles and following the same will
end result with a good product to the end users and also completes the
Windows Store Certification without any failures.
Hope this tutorial will be useful. Thank You.
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