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Consistent App Experiences: A Primer

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Great apps have a special ingredient that makes them great – the experience of the app itself. Paul Laberge comes back to D³: LIVE & INTERACTiVE for a chat on what it takes to create great, but more importantly, consistent, app experiences.

Download the video from Channel 9 >>

Discussion Points

  • [00:35] Exciting times at Microsoft
  • [02:13] Today’s developer – the App Developer
  • [02:45] Appification – Building apps with a cross platform presence
  • [05:05] Doesn’t matter what the device is – it is a PC
  • [06:01] A design language that explains information architecture – strategy vs. implementation
  • [07:50] Data vs. Information – fundamental differences and how they relate to apps
  • [09:27] App experiences across devices – benefits and consequences
  • [10:58] Understanding consistent app experiences and consistent UIs
  • [11:59] A good experience is a consistent experience
  • [13:55] Windows Azure as the infrastructure to aid the consistent experience
  • [16:13] Avoiding confusion when designing between consistent experience and consistent design
  • [19:30] Fast and Fluid – one of the pillars of the design language
  • [21:00] Focusing on the experience rather than the implementation details
  • [21:50] Paying attention to the app experience will make the app sticky – bringing people back for more
  • [23:25] New way of thinking: app differentiation based on experience, not functionality as it used to be
  • [25:59] Creating consistent app experiences even with completely different UIs
  • [27:13] Principle: Catering the app experience to its usage scenarios for each platform
  • [28:43] Thinking about the app’s Best At statement
  • [31:11] Consistent app experiences over device apps that have different functions
  • [33:07] Consistency can be translated as “feels natural”
  • [35:07] How to implement this new way of thinking
  • [40:20] Having to consider different aspects when designing and developing app – changes to the developer role
  • [43:32] Share code between Windows 8 and Windows Phone – reuse existing skills and knowledge to leverage multiple platforms
  • [47:31] Things to keep top of mind to remind yourself of the difference between consistent app experiences and consistent app UIs
  • [51:59] A robust, scalable backend is essential to connected app experiences

Mentioned Resources

Paul will be publishing a series of posts that will be going deeper into the concepts of consistent app experiences. Make sure to stay tuned to the Canadian Developer Connection in the next couple of weeks.

If you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to watch the news segment from this month’s show to keep up to date with everything that is going on.

Join the Conversation
When you go to design and develop an app, is consistency of app experiences one of your design aspirations? Have you ever considered app experience when designing apps? Share your thoughts, opinions, and stories in the Canadian Developer Connection group on LinkedIn.

D³: LIVE & INTERACTiVE
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