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You’re building great functionally into your apps but don’t forget to the features that will make it shine on Windows 8. Some of windows 8 features are new concepts. As developers we need to become familiar with them and learn when and how to use them. Windows 8 has new features such as contracts, personalization...

By now, most people have realized (in theory) that recreating a PC-based app (or web app) is not exactly the right idea for mobile apps.  In practice, however, it is clear that this is not as easy as it sounds .  When you’re building an app that has no history on the PC or web, building the...

A good number of us from the team are in Redmond this week on our annual pilgrimage to the mothership (Microsoft Headquarters) for training, so content from me will be a little lighter than usual. As a result, I wanted to share with you a set of links and resources that are new to help you learn more...

When a mobile app marketplace hits a population of five figures, it becomes a little tough at times to have your app stand out of the crowd. Even if your app or game is the most awesome thing ever invented since the spork , it’s still tough to get that initial traction when there is a sea of other apps...

Have you ever sat down and really thought about what made games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band so successful?  Certainly the challenge of competition had something to do with it.  But at its very heart, all those games are is a challenge to hit the right coloured key on a device (guitar, drumkit...

Figuring out the flow of your mobile app is tough but it’s key to the experience. Without good app flow your app will be tough to use and users will get annoyed with it. Annoyed users tend not to use the app that annoys them. In fact, there’s a statistic that only 1 in 100 apps downloaded...

Icons are everywhere.  Literally everywhere .  They have become as mainstream as apple pie and any time we’re in front of a computer or other digital device, chances are you’re launching an app through an icon.  But what if there was a better way ? We are inundated with icons wherever...

Metro is gaining popularity as a way to create compelling app designs for Windows Phone.  It’s theme is distinct and very oriented towards providing the user with information.  At the same time, given its emphasis on information, it is more than just presenting data on the screen.  A well...

When you look at successful mobile apps and games, there are a few common traits that you will notice in them.  They all achieve a certain set of goals that may be subtle or completely obvious (or both!). If you harness the power of motivation for your app user, you have created an experience for...

Even ten years ago, “experience” was not really something that was given much thought in building software.  More often than not the primary goal of a piece of software was simply to display results, or data.  How the data or results were displayed was more often a function of technical specifications...