[...]... when the user is in your application, your application receives all of their attention 18 CHAPTER 2 ■ The WINDOWS Design Language Win As One One of the keys to working in a Windows style application is that the style has been set Users of a Windows application will be opening your application with the expectation that they will already have some level of familiarity with the application because they... (http://msdn.microsoft.com) Styling in the Windows 8 User Interface With the exception of Desktop mode, which is present in Windows 8 running Intel-based processors, the Windows 8 user interface is largely based on Windows style guidelines and principles Let’s start by looking at the Start screen (see Figure 2- 18) Figure 2- 18.   Start screen with charms activated 23 CHAPTER 2 ■ The WINDOWS Design Language The Start... categorization For an excellent example of a Windows style application designed with a hierarchical navigation structure running on a platform other than Windows 8, take a look at the Microsoft Zune application running on Windows 7 or at the Windows style user interface on Xbox 360 20 CHAPTER 2 ■ The WINDOWS Design Language Figure 2-12.  Hierarchical navigation at Detail page Many applications do not fit into the... user should do Beyond Touch Like Windows 8 does, this chapter has put a lot of importance on the user interacting with the computer through the use of touch gestures It should be noted, however, that the Windows 8 user interface is referred to as touch-first and not as touch-only Windows 8 boasts the ability to run on much of the hardware that ran on Windows XP and Windows 7 and in many cases will... page, the item title is about half the size of the group header Figure 2-9.  Windows application demonstrating grid layout and hierarchy 17 e Windows Design Language Rooted heavily in the Swiss design style that we’ve just covered, the Windows Design Language guides user experience design for the Windows Phone 7/7.5 and Windows 8 operating systems as well as for current incarnations of the Zune and Xbox... is really good at, especially Windows 8 applications, which, as you will learn in Chapter 17, can work together to solve problems larger than what each individual application s developers envisioned It’s good to use a template statement such as “This application will _ so that _” to help focus your thoughts not only on what the application will do but also on why the application will do it or the... the benefit that it provides If I am building an application to track the gas mileage of a vehicle, the statement may be something like “This application will calculate the fuel economy of a vehicle so that I can better anticipate my fuel costs.” 26 Chapter 3 ■ Designing Windows 8 Applications ■■Note  Be sure to document the high-level purpose of your application in a manner that will be very visible... make them lose trust in your application Microsoft has provided guidance, tools, templates, and style sheets to make it easy for developers to create Windows applications with a consistent look and feel, and you should make full use of these resources Windows User Experience Guidelines In addition to the more generalized principles that Microsoft has published for Windows applications, a comprehensive... feel, and behavior of applications designed to run in the Windows ecosystem Although not a comprehensive treatment of these guidelines, which are freely available in their entirety on the MSDN Library web site at http://dev .windows. com, this section covers a few of the aspects that are most applicable to designers/developers getting a feel for the Windows experience Application Layout Applications should... intuitive flavor to computing In this chapter, I will cover the elements of the Windows Design Language, show examples, and explain how Windows 8 incorporates them Before jumping into the Windows Design Language itself, I will cover the Swiss design style, whose influence can be clearly seen in elements of Windows Swiss Design Style The Windows Design Language is influenced most by a design style known as the . GlanCe xxiii Introduction Welcome to Beginning Windows 8 Application Development: XAML Edition. When I was rst asked to produce a sample table of contents for what my Windows 8 development. were not integrated into the sample application but will be valuable to the developer beginning to write Windows 8 applications. Downloading the Code e