How we found your dao in developing an application for Windows 8
Windows 8-application for TV and radio channel "Komsomolskaya Pravda" was our first development for this platform. Nonetheless, we took it up already being burdened with sufficient experience in developing mobile applications for the media: for example, we already had Newsweek magazine, Engadget, Washington Post in our arsenal, and even the same TV and radio channel Komsomolskaya Pravda ) . And yet, when we faced Windows 8, it turned out that we have a lot to learn and something to think about.
Customers from the Komsomolskaya Pravda set very simple tasks: to make both radio and TV available on one screen, and all this to speak and show. At first, this Zen-TZ did not bother us ...
At the start, we didn’t bother much to steam and reflect, but just got together and invented ... still life. That is, the first brainstorming ended with the fact that we came up with a skeptical marine design familiar to any iOS developer with detailed traced retro-radio and telecom and with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which herring is wrapped.
')
Something like that…
Having come up with beauty, we calmed down.
First of all, we, of course, sat down at the guidelines and went through all the existing applications that were viewable. As a result of this work, it became clear: you can already panic. Because absolutely nothing of the proposed did not suit us! The very concept of the application and the requirements of the customer tightly blocked our path to the implementation of micro-guidelines.
We literally had nothing to implement the correct concept: neither the photo gallery, nor the news feed, nothing that could make the hub content zero, the application simply has nothing to scroll! More precisely, of course, it was possible to make a hub for the program, but then all the controllers would leave, and the customer wanted everything to fit on one screen. On the hands were such cards: the control panel of the TV, the control panel of the radio and the program guide. And all this, in accordance with the will of the customer, was supposed to live on one screen.
To top it off, we were not able to meet a single application similar to ours: even the most ascetic interfaces still contained at least some kind of content - pictures or texts. So, our application was supposed to be the most minimalist. We honestly tried to use at least some chips, but nothing suited us, in the guidelines everything was completely inapplicable in our case. From there, only one share button came in handy.
Then we suspected something and began to realize that the way of the TV and herring is not our way ...
So, we had a crystal simple application on one single screen, with which you can do only two things - watch TV and listen to the radio. Required appropriate design. Every day, our designer began with meditations on the app and every day we threw something away until there were only 3 colors left ...
... and no volume - we got an absolutely flat, minimalistic, pure as a lotus flower application that no longer even went beyond Windows 8, but hovering somewhere above the sinful world.
Some technical aspects of the work on the application also were given to us not immediately.
Initially, the customer provided the stream in the format Http Live Streaming . This format is native to Apple and is well supported on Android. Therefore, when working on appropriate applications for the iPhone and for the android systems, there were no problems. But Microsoft decided not to notice this common format, and its support is completely absent in Windows (both Windows Phone and Windows 8).
3ivx, which created the sdk for developing applications for Windows and is planning to release support for Windows Phone, compensates for this shortcoming. But their component is very expensive - 3.5 thousand dollars plus difficulties with paperwork. Therefore, we decided to ask the customer to put a nearby video stream in a different format. The Smooth Streaming format, which is supported by Microsoft, was chosen. For the development of applications, Microsoft wrote an appropriate SDK , which is also available as an extension for Visual Studio.
In addition, we have written a small library to simplify working with the MVVM template and to facilitate the development process . In the next article we will talk about it in more detail. We hope that some of the readers with its help will be able to save some time for development.
This library has support for behaviors. Sometimes, depending on the task, we use them to handle the turns of the device. In fact, this leads to the regeneration of interface elements. Quite convenient, especially if you want to support snapped view. But for this application, this method is not suitable, because MediaElement is designed so that when you lose a partner, the video stops. Therefore, in order for the video not to be interrupted when the device is rotated, the interface had to use the VisualStateManager, which is less convenient with a complex interface that is not sharpened by a scattering of tiles.
The main feature of the Komsomolskaya Pravda TV and Radio channel for Windows 8 compared to the iPhone version is switching between gestures between TV and radio. We don’t need to go anywhere from the screen, just enough, being in the TV window, pull up the radio window:
While in the iOS version you need to switch with the button:
Going to another screen in the case of iOS is also necessary in order to ask a question on the air:
Windows 8 quickly disaccustomed to this, trying to fit everything in one place:
The same story with the share button. As we have said, sharing is the only thing that meets the requirements in our application.
After some time, “communicating” with an application for Windows 8, you start to perceive solutions for iOS as visually overloaded.
The most important thing is that we, the people of the iOS mindset, the apple fans who are used to thinking in the Apple paradigm, managed to step on their throats with their songs and do something completely different from our usual interface and design.
And, by the way, after our Komsomolskaya Pravda was already published on the Marketplace , in the same place we found the application even more minimalist!
It looks like this:
So, we have something to strive for in our enlightenment :)
What the customer wanted
Customers from the Komsomolskaya Pravda set very simple tasks: to make both radio and TV available on one screen, and all this to speak and show. At first, this Zen-TZ did not bother us ...
Do you remember how it all started…
At the start, we didn’t bother much to steam and reflect, but just got together and invented ... still life. That is, the first brainstorming ended with the fact that we came up with a skeptical marine design familiar to any iOS developer with detailed traced retro-radio and telecom and with the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, in which herring is wrapped.
')
Something like that…
Having come up with beauty, we calmed down.
Why I had to break the laws of Microsoft
First of all, we, of course, sat down at the guidelines and went through all the existing applications that were viewable. As a result of this work, it became clear: you can already panic. Because absolutely nothing of the proposed did not suit us! The very concept of the application and the requirements of the customer tightly blocked our path to the implementation of micro-guidelines.
We literally had nothing to implement the correct concept: neither the photo gallery, nor the news feed, nothing that could make the hub content zero, the application simply has nothing to scroll! More precisely, of course, it was possible to make a hub for the program, but then all the controllers would leave, and the customer wanted everything to fit on one screen. On the hands were such cards: the control panel of the TV, the control panel of the radio and the program guide. And all this, in accordance with the will of the customer, was supposed to live on one screen.
To top it off, we were not able to meet a single application similar to ours: even the most ascetic interfaces still contained at least some kind of content - pictures or texts. So, our application was supposed to be the most minimalist. We honestly tried to use at least some chips, but nothing suited us, in the guidelines everything was completely inapplicable in our case. From there, only one share button came in handy.
Then we suspected something and began to realize that the way of the TV and herring is not our way ...
Neither vodka nor herring
So, we had a crystal simple application on one single screen, with which you can do only two things - watch TV and listen to the radio. Required appropriate design. Every day, our designer began with meditations on the app and every day we threw something away until there were only 3 colors left ...
... and no volume - we got an absolutely flat, minimalistic, pure as a lotus flower application that no longer even went beyond Windows 8, but hovering somewhere above the sinful world.
Adventure continues
Some technical aspects of the work on the application also were given to us not immediately.
Initially, the customer provided the stream in the format Http Live Streaming . This format is native to Apple and is well supported on Android. Therefore, when working on appropriate applications for the iPhone and for the android systems, there were no problems. But Microsoft decided not to notice this common format, and its support is completely absent in Windows (both Windows Phone and Windows 8).
3ivx, which created the sdk for developing applications for Windows and is planning to release support for Windows Phone, compensates for this shortcoming. But their component is very expensive - 3.5 thousand dollars plus difficulties with paperwork. Therefore, we decided to ask the customer to put a nearby video stream in a different format. The Smooth Streaming format, which is supported by Microsoft, was chosen. For the development of applications, Microsoft wrote an appropriate SDK , which is also available as an extension for Visual Studio.
In addition, we have written a small library to simplify working with the MVVM template and to facilitate the development process . In the next article we will talk about it in more detail. We hope that some of the readers with its help will be able to save some time for development.
This library has support for behaviors. Sometimes, depending on the task, we use them to handle the turns of the device. In fact, this leads to the regeneration of interface elements. Quite convenient, especially if you want to support snapped view. But for this application, this method is not suitable, because MediaElement is designed so that when you lose a partner, the video stops. Therefore, in order for the video not to be interrupted when the device is rotated, the interface had to use the VisualStateManager, which is less convenient with a complex interface that is not sharpened by a scattering of tiles.
What we did
The main feature of the Komsomolskaya Pravda TV and Radio channel for Windows 8 compared to the iPhone version is switching between gestures between TV and radio. We don’t need to go anywhere from the screen, just enough, being in the TV window, pull up the radio window:
While in the iOS version you need to switch with the button:
Going to another screen in the case of iOS is also necessary in order to ask a question on the air:
Windows 8 quickly disaccustomed to this, trying to fit everything in one place:
The same story with the share button. As we have said, sharing is the only thing that meets the requirements in our application.
After some time, “communicating” with an application for Windows 8, you start to perceive solutions for iOS as visually overloaded.
What we have learned from this story
The most important thing is that we, the people of the iOS mindset, the apple fans who are used to thinking in the Apple paradigm, managed to step on their throats with their songs and do something completely different from our usual interface and design.
And, by the way, after our Komsomolskaya Pravda was already published on the Marketplace , in the same place we found the application even more minimalist!
It looks like this:
So, we have something to strive for in our enlightenment :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/170651/
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