Windows 8: Designing UX for apps

UX = User eXperience (it used to be UniX :)

Microsoft is very serious about "re-imagining" Windows. The Windows 8 ("Metro", "Modern", "Store") apps have strict guidelines how they should look and behave. Current design is result of long and deliberate process... possibly even some inspiration...

Anyway, when apps are submitted to Windows Store they are evaluated to make sure the intent of Windows designers is preserved. The "Wild West" attitude that was a hallmark of Windows for long time is left to Android to struggle or prosper with...

Designing Windows 8, or how to redesign a religion

Developer downloads for programming Windows Store apps

Designing UX for apps:

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• Have a Vision: The most important part of designing a Windows Store app is
  determining what the app will be great at.

• Design guidance for Windows Store apps

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Windows 8 Product Guide for Developers

Microsoft design principles:

The Microsoft design style puts content before chrome and helps you build attractive, easy-to-use apps that will delight your customers with their intuitive and common interaction model. Some principles common to great Windows Store apps include:

• Content before chrome. Content is at the heart of Windows Store apps, and putting content before chrome is fundamental to the design of Windows Store apps.
• Fast and fluid. User interactions and transitions are quick and intuitive, and animations are deliberate and purposeful.
• Support for multiple states. Windows Store apps support a full-screen, immersive state, and a minimal, snapped view that runs while a second app takes up the majority of screen space.
• Support for the right contracts. App contracts provide a way for apps to work together that lets users search across apps or choose to share content from one app to another. Their experience improves as users add more apps that support contracts to their PC.
• Live tiles. Useful information appears on the app’s tile on the Start screen even when the app isn’t running.
• Settings and user context roam via the cloud. Users get a great, continuous experience, regardless of where they sign in.

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Some more marketing speak...

Embracing these principles makes your app more usable, increases its visual appeal, and helps you deliver an experience that’s consistent and familiar to your users.

Windows 8 represents the single biggest platform opportunity available, and business terms of the Windows Store represent a developer-first point of view. The registration fee for individuals is $49 USD, with a $99 USD fee for companies. The revenue share is 70%, but when an app achieves $25,000 USD in revenue—aggregated across all sales in every market—that changes to 80% revenue share for the rest of the lifetime of the app.