For the past three years I have had the opportunity to participate and have enjoyed every minute of it. Some things to expect in the days ahead:

• Lack of sleep
• Tight deadlines
• Building great relationships
• Doing something that makes you feel good

These project can mean the world to these organizations and help drive traffic and more importantly donors to their site.

Here’s the Math

~120 volunteers x ~25 hours of work x ~$50 per hour = ~$150,000!

These are conservative estimates.  A lot of people will put in more than 25 hours of work and $50 per hour in probably below market average for most consultants.  There will be people who will work 20 hours a day to help meet the goal of their non-profit.  Some will even continue the relationship past the weekend.  So one cannot truly put a price on this weekend.

This endeavor would not be possible help of the sponsors who help fuel the volunteers.  This year there is even an energy drink sponsor to help keep us going. Did I mention that BlueMetal is a sponsor?

Without the sponsors this event would not be possible.  Thank you!

My Contribution

This year I will be working with Charles River Conservancy to update their existing web site. They are a citizens advocacy group dedicated to the renewal and stewardship of the Charles River Parklands from Boston Harbor to the Watertown Dam.    They are looking for a site that is easy to maintain/update, that makes it easy to find relevant information, and that is “pretty”.  We are building a site that implements a responsive design, so it will work great on any form factor.

My Advice to Fellow Campers

Be flexible… Work Hard…. Have FUN!

Native Applications

A native application is an application that runs directly on the hardware of the device and not in the device’s web browser.  These applications are usually delivered and updated from an app store. Here are some pros and cons of building native applications.

Pros:

• Native applications are able to access all the hardware sensors on the device.
• Native applications can work offline and may not need a connection.  Data can be cached locally.
• You can usually get better performance out of native applications since they run closer to the hardware. This tends to provide better user experience.
• Most platforms offer native applications the ability to perform tasks in the background, even when the application is not running.
• Native applications can be more readily monetized.  Most stores offer infrastructure for handling purchasing transactions (for a cut of the cost).

Cons:

• Changes to the application require redeployment of the applications but most stores handle this gracefully.
• The application certification process can take time for you deployment.
• Native development requires developers skilled for working with the different platforms.  Depending on how many platforms you need to target this may require many different skill set.

Phone Gap

A caveat to the last con. There are frameworks out there that allow you to build native applications by writing an application once, usually in HTML/JavaScript, that gets compiled into native applications. Phone Gap is one such framework.  The downside to these frameworks is you tend to develop to the lowest common denominator. For example on Windows phones you may not be able to take advantage of live tiles. This maybe ok if you if the features you need for you application are available on all the target platforms and have been incorporated into your framework of choice.  Also keep in mind that these applications tend to look generic and don’t embrace the design metaphors of the different operating systems.

Mobile Web Applications

Mobile web applications are web applications that have been optimized for mobile devices.  These applications may be smaller versions of their desktop equivalents or completely different applications that provide functionality that makes sense for mobile devices (i.e. consider data bandwidth, power consumption and usability on a small form factor).  

Pros:

• Broader pool of developers – most web developers are able to shift to mobile web development with minimal learning curve.
• Plethora of open source frameworks to help speed up development.
• Mobile web applications are able to be modified without having to release to a web store – all user access the latest build without having to manually update the application.
• Runs on most platforms, including non-smartphone devices.

Cons:

• There is still work to determine device capabilities, including which versions HTML/JavaScript/CSS will work.
• You are limited with which device sensors you can access.
• Very limited offline/background processing (requires HTML5 at a minimum).
• You are responsible for implementing monetization infrastructure. 

My Two Cents

The are just some of the things to consider when creating your mobile strategy. My preference is building native applications but I am not against mobile web development either. The situation should dictate which approach you should take.  Don’t build a native app just for the sake of building a native app. In the past most smartphone users avoided using the web browser.  The experience was not ideal.  As more sites are redesigned with mobile in mind this is steadily changing. So it is up to you to build out compelling applications that makes the user want to come back.

One of my pet peeves is when a native application is a shell for web content.  There is no value add except that it gets you in the app store and provides you a way to update your application with deploying a new version.  In my experience these type of applications lack in user experience.  They just don’t perform as well as pure native applications. The opposite is true too.  Don’t make me install you native application when I visit your site on a mobile device. 

No matter which approach you choose you should make sure that you pick the approach that best suite your needs.  Build out a compelling solution so that users want to use your application. As I noted in the last post, A Mobile Web Strategy, consolidate as much functionality as you can behind a service layer.  This allows you the most functionality in making your choice.

As noted in the table, certain SKUs require a side loading key.  These keys cost around $30 dollars each and are sold in groups of a hundred, for a total of $3000 minimum.  Rocky uses an example of an organization with 100 Windows RT or Windows 8 Pro machines.  I will challenge this assumption.   Most larger organizations will deploy the Enterprise versions of Windows.  So they will not require side-loading keys.  Smaller organizations need to weigh the cost of Windows 8 Pro vs. Windows 8 Enterprise with the cost of side-loading keys.  If they are going to develop internal applications that need to be deployed through side-loading they may want to invest in the Enterprise Edition.

Windows RT is a different beast.  In my opinion Windows RT is not suited for the enterprise.  It is geared towards the consumer market.  Most organizations are going to want to invest in tablets running full versions of Windows 8, and there is no reason that that version could not be Enterprise.  Obviously ARM devices are cheaper and have better battery life but this rapidly changing.  Intel has recently announced vast improvements to line of processors. Besides most enterprise users will require access to legacy desktop applications which you can’t do on a Windows RT device. Which means you can’t deploy a WPF to these devices.  So they would have to carry a laptop in addition to a Windows RT device.

Finally what about BYOD? I believe that most organization cringe when they allow devices that they don’t control into the network.  Besides most BYOD devices tend to be Andriod tablet or iPads, both of which can’t run Windows 8 applications. One of the reason BYOD is popular is because most organization, especially larger ones, tend to run on the Microsoft stack and there was a large mobile gap in this stack. With Windows 8, organization will be able to fill this gap and may steadily reverse their BYOD policies.

Deployment

Rocky next covers the cost to deploy a Windows 8 application using side-loading.  He outlined 4 options:

• Manual Deployment (Sneaker Net)
• Run Powershell script from network share.
• Microsoft System Center
• Microsoft Intune

How are organizations deploying desktop applications today (we will ignore web applications for now)?  It seams to me that most organization have an infrastructure in place to handle deployment and I bet that list of options looks like the list above. Rocky took the standpoint of adding the cost of implementing one of these solutions from scratch and associating the cost with the cost of side-loading.  I would avoid the last two options if this is the case but these options offer more benefits to the organization than just Windows 8 application deployments.

Summary

With any enterprise/organization IT implementation all the cost should be considered and how those costs align with the organization’s strategic goals.  I believe that Rocky took an isolated view in his post.  He did not compare the costs to the cost of building and deploying alternative applications (Web and WPF) nor did he show how the cost play in strategic goals of an organization.  In my last post I cover some of the challenges of developing web applications from which you can infer some of the hidden costs.

Are Windows 8 applications going to be the answer to every development problem? No, organizations must evaluate all the requirements, technical, tactical and strategic, to determine the right solution.  That includes determining the costs of any solution.

One of the challenges with working in the modern enterprise is how do you target many device while keep development costs at a minimum? The first thing you should do is move as much of the functionality of your application behind the cloud and expose it through services.  Though there have been advances in backend technologies, they tend to be more stable. This architecture gives you the ability to deliver consistent functionality across different platforms. There are different ways to minimize developer costs when it comes to developing UI for multiple platforms which I will is the focus of this post.

Mobile Web vs. Native Application

When your list of target platforms includes mobile devices you inevitably get into the Mobile Web vs. Native Application debate.  That is not the focus of this post.  I will tackle that debate in a different post since that topic deserves more attention than I can give in this post.  So I will assume that mobile web has been chosen as that platform.  For now I will also forego the discussion on how different browsers handle rendering HTML, interpreting CSS, and running JavaScript except to note that you have to keep those differences in mind. There are open source JavaScript frameworks that help you handle a lot of those issues.

HTML is the only true cross platform “native” development environment.  Browsers are everywhere from TVs all the way down to the most basic of cell phones.  If you already have a web application, you are probably thinking “I am also set”.  You can go that route but I am sure the user experience will not be what your users want. In fact that was the strategy at the beginning.  On the bright side you did not spend any money to get there.  You have just alienated those user who haven’t made the switch to smartphones(most smartphones are capable of rendering full site though the experience may not be ideal) which maybe not be a problem in the enterprise).  Outside of smart phones and tablets you will be hard pressed to find mobile device that can handle and site created with HTML 5 and CSS 3.   Strategy Lesson: Map out all the devices that you have to support.  This will be important when we talk about mobile web strategy later.

Client Side vs. Server Side

There are two schools of thought when it comes to building out a mobile web solution. You can build out a solution that serve up pages based on device capabilities. Or you can build a solution that serves up the same page that is adapted on the client. The first strategy happens server side.  You may have experienced this strategy when you go to site xxx.com and are redirected to mobile.xxx.com.  There was some server side magic happening to redirected you to the mobile site.

There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this “magic”.  First you can query the request object to determine which browser made the request but this is currently out of vogue.  Besides any time browser functionality changes you would have to modify your application. Also you would have to remember all the capabilities of every browser, not too much fun if you ask me.  Instead you should serve up pages based upon the capabilities of the device.  The best way to do that is to use a Device Description Repository (DDR).

One of the most popular DDRs is the Wireless Universal Resource File (WURFL) which contains profiles of 15,000 mobile devices with hundreds of capabilities per profile.  Obviously you would not create 15,000 distinct pages.  You would create categories (smartphone, tablet, mobile phone…) of devices and serve up the appropriate page for that category.  Take the list of supported devices you created earlier to build out your categories.  This allows you to provide an optimal experience for each device you support.

The client side strategy is known as Responsive Web Design.  It uses some built in CSS functionality, specifically Responsive Web Media Queries to determine the viewable area. This allows you to develop CSS for different size screens using the same html page, shifting the layout for each resolution.  The Boston Globe site is a good example of this strategy. As the size of the browser changes the page responds by changing the layout.

Media queries happens client side. That means that the whole page is downloaded to the client prior to modification.  That means there might be functionality that is downloaded to the user’s device that they never see.  If that user has limited data plan, you are eating into their allotted bandwidth. Plus you may incur a performance hit over less than optimal networks.  Keep in mind with this strategy you can not query the device for its capabilities. The benefit of this approach is that you only have to build the page once and can reuse it across devices.  Obviously you would have to design the site for each category you plan to support.

Side Note: My post was inspired by this post, Rise of (Small) Machines – A Responsive Example. Here Erik talks about an open source framework to help build responsive sites.  I started to leave a comment but I decided I would write a post instead.  That post started to get too long so now I am writing a series of post!

Hybrid Approach

You may want to consider a hybrid approach.  Responsive web design is great for sites that deliver content.  You can modify the layout of that content for each device category without downloading extraneous content. It not so great for pages where you have to do data entry.  You could use responsive web design to show different data entry fields for different size devices but you are back to eating bandwidth.  Also responsive web design requires browsers to support this functionality.  Most non-smartphone browsers are not capable of this.  If you were using a DDR you could server responsive pages to devices capable of handling them and static html to others.  You could also serve data entry pages optimized for each category without downloading the world.

A note on DDRs.  There are many different vendors out there.  There are even some open source ones.  For a good DDR that is up to date you are probably going to have to pay.  You will want to evaluate the cost vs. repository accuracy to see which one will satisfy your needs.

The User Experience

Remember from my last post that one of the pillars of a Modern Enterprise Application is user experience.  Keep that in mind when selecting a mobile web strategy.  You want to provide the most optimal experience for your users. Make sure that your application should be a “good citizen” on their devices.

Summary

As you can see there needs to be a lot of thought put into developing a mobile web strategy.  I barely scratched the surface but I have hopefully given you a place to start. One thing I hope you got out of this is that the “use html everywhere” is not the “code once use everywhere” panacea that everyone believes it to be.  There is still work to make it truly cross platform.  If I am still going to have to do work to make it cross platform, why did I not build a native application (again discussion for another time).

Modern Application

Technology has made that model ineffective. Today people and businesses use technology in different ways. This has caused a redefinition of what constitutes an enterprise applications. So what is my definition of a Modern Enterprise Application? There are three things that I think make up a modern application:

• They can’t work insolation
• They must consider the user experience in their design
• They should be accessible anywhere

Big Data Revolution

First and foremost enterprise applications can no longer work in isolation. The data that is collected by these applications should be actionable in near real time.  Terabytes and terabytes of data are useless if that data can not be acted upon in a timely manner.  Working with large amounts of dispersed data has brought about the Big Data Revolutions. Organizations are attempting to use their vast quantity of data to glean a competitive advantage. Any new enterprise application should consider contributing to and consuming data available throughout the enterprise.

Time for UX

In the past battleship gray WinForm applications were the norm. Not much effort was put into the usability of these application and as such there are many inefficiencies causing wasted dollars in the form of manpower. Also today’s workforce has grown up using applications that provide rich, immersive applications so they expect more from the applications they use both at home and in the office.  Today the technology exists to easily build out richer applications than were possible in the past. By concentrating on the experience, enterprises can gain some efficiencies.  Also eliminating some of the frustrations of their users. This should increase employee satisfaction especially for the younger people entering the workforce.

Three Screens and a Cloud

A few years ago Ray Ozzie (while he was still at Microsoft) had a vision of delivering applications to “Three Screens and a Cloud”.  The three screens were TV, PC, and mobile and the content would be delivered from the cloud.  Back then he wanted Silverlight to be the mechanism for delivering applications to these devices. Today plugin technologies are all but dead for anything other than internal business application. The vision is still alive and well though the delivery mechanism has changed.  More and more mobile devices are showing up in the enterprise and these devices need to tie into the enterprise ecosystem.  Your enterprise application should reach as many of these screens as possible

Summary

These are just some high level thoughts of mine.  I will cover different aspects of modern application through a series of blog posts. I will attempt to highlight how these three building blocks are used to build out a modern enterprise application.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 17,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

I have been using Windows 8 since the Developer’s Preview was released over a year ago.  I have built Modern Applications (formerly known as Metro) since then.  I started out by putting it on an Acer convertible laptop/tablet.  This gave me a device with a touch screen that I could play around with.  I also used the Samsung Tablet that were given out at Microsoft’s Build Conference.  Once the RTM was available I migrated my primary laptop and a 4 year old desktop computer.  I love using it. Windows 8 is not perfect (I’ll cover that throughout this post) but I think that it is a step in the right direction.

Microsoft has reimagined Windows.  They started by replacing the start menu with an entire screen for launching applications.  This is one of the areas where people have complained the loudest.  They are comfortable using what they know but that could lead innovation stagnation.  If you are comfortable with a certain interface then by all means stick with what you know

By reimagining Windows, Microsoft is taking a big risk.  This brings me to my first observation, there is a learning curve.  That is case with anything new.  Dr. Neilsen even points this out with the Office Ribbon (which he likes).  The Ribbon replaced the file menu system which was around for years.  Windows 8 is the first major change to Windows since Windows 95 hence the learning curve. It took me about a week or two to get over the learning curve. I am more productive in Windows 8 and like the experience it provides. I get excited when I learn a new tip or trick to help me be even more productive.

Double Desktop

The first point that Dr. Neilsen makes is that there is Cognitive Overhead with a Double Desktop. In my opinion there is only one desktop, the one that everyone is used to in earlier version of Windows. I don’t consider the “other” desktop a desktop.  It is a start screen that replaced the start menu. The functionality that was available in the start menu has been enhanced in the new start screen specifically in the new tile layout (more on that in a bit). 

There are two environments for applications, one where your current Windows applications run and one where these rich, immersive applications run.  Microsoft is starting to unify the experience across all their environments (XBOX, PC, Tablet and the Phone). But there is still a need to run the millions of applications that have been developed thus far hence the need for two environments.  This is the first incarnation of what’s to come so there are bound to be inconsistencies between the two environments. Microsoft needs to address them but in the meantime they need to do a better job educating users.

Lack of Multiple Windows

The articles next talks about  multi-tasking.  In Windows 7 users can have as many desktop applications open as they please.  This is true in Windows 8.  The restriction on a single application is only for the new Modern Applications (the ones optimized for tablets).  These application are geared for consumption and not for complex tasks.  Even Microsoft agrees that complex tasks should be conducted in the desktop environment.  The next version of Office has been enhanced for touch and battery consumption but still runs on the desktop.  This is true for Office on the Windows RT tablets. Not all task need to be built using the new application sandbox.

The area where Microsoft needs to make improvements is in Multi-Monitor support for Windows 8.  If you have a Modern Application full screen on one of the monitors and you switch to a desktop application then the Modern Application goes away and both screens display the desktop environment.  You can only have a Modern Application snapped when working with a desktop application on multi-monitor.

Flat Style Reduces Discoverability

Dr. Neilsen points out that there are some issues determining what areas are clickable. When I first started using Windows 8 I found that to be true.  After a while I got used to it. I like the aesthetics of Windows 8. There could be some more subtle cues to indicate interactivity.    I also agree that the typography is elegant and is a refreshing change from the past.

Low information density

The available advice on designing for the “modern UI style” seems to guide designers to create applications with extraordinarily low information density.

Not exactly.  The design guidelines state that developers should make the content front and center, content before chrome.  If a developer decides to place less content on the screen it is on them.  The guidelines also state that the interface should be adaptive to the screen real estate and Microsoft provides tools and controls to help users accomplish this.  I find that Modern Application provide a rich user experience compared to the clutter you find on most web sites today.

Live Tiles

One of the new features of Windows 8 are the Live Tiles.  These were borrowed from the Windows Phone interface.  They provide information to the users without having to open the application.  In the article, Dr. Neilsen states the start screen can become an “unruly environment that feels like dozens of carnival barkers yelling at you simultaneously”.  The thing to remember is that the user is in control. If they feel that the information, provided by the tile is not useful, they can shut of tile updates for that application.  This puts the onus on the developer to provide useful information in their tile updates.

If the user doesn’t use the application for a specific period of time then those tiles won’t update.  So only applications that the user uses regularly will have tile updates.  Users also have control over the placement of their tiles.  This control allows the user to place tiles that they fine useful in a location that allows them to garner the information provided.  

Hidden  Charms

Another new feature are the Charms.  Yes they are hidden but after a little usage you get use to them being off the screen.

Power user tip: if you have a keyboard then Win+C will bring up the Charms Bar.

So what is the benefit of the Charms?  They are common set of functionality provided by the operating system that allows developers to integrate their application into the Windows ecosystem.  The most powerful charm is the Share charm.  This allows users to share content with other applications without leaving the application they are in.  This helps lessens the cognitive load in that they user does not have to have to context switch form the application they are using to share content.

The risk with hiding the Charms and Application Bars is that the they are out of site.  It is up to Microsoft to educate users to look for the chrome of the application.  Hiding this functionality does allow developers to showcase the content of their application.  This is similar to how Microsoft reorganized functionality in the Office Ribbon. Users are used to that now so it can be assumed that users will get use to the new functionality of Windows 8.

Weak on Tablets

The final point Dr. Neilsen is that Windows 8 UX is weak on tablets and terrible for PC.  I will talk about my experience using Windows 8. I have used Windows 8 on tablets, laptops and desktops.  When I am on a laptop and desktop I spend most of my time in the desktop environment.  I don’t even notice that I am using Windows 8 except for the performance enhancements that have been introduced in Windows 8.  When I do venture into the Modern Application side it is usually to consume content (news apps, weather apps, Internet Explorers).  As for the start screen, it is nice to have content presented in the tiles without having to launch an application. 

When I want to launch an application I hit the Windows key and start typing. The built in search functionality takes me to the application I am trying to launch.  I don’t have to search menus for applications.  This how I launched applications in Windows 7.

Power users will be happy to know that most key board shortcuts they are used to work in Windows 8.   There are new keyboard shortcuts to help make power users more productive in Windows 8.

I like the experience on a tablet although I don’t spend much time on tablets.  Since the majority of the Modern Applications are for consumption, the tablet form factor is ideal for them.  Once you get used to the touch gestures the Surface tablet is a nice form factor.  Like I said I am not much of a tablet user.  What I am looking forward to is getting a touch screen laptop as my primary machine.  Windows 8 begs to be touched.

The real power will come when hardware vendors produce a tablet form factor that that comes packaged with a powerful docking station. A user can then go from tablet to “PC” and back while remaining fully productive. 

I envision a users who wakes up in the morning and grabs her Win8 tablet and checks the weather and news using Modern Applications.  She then gets on the train and starts checking her email. She gets a message asking her to update an important spread sheet for a meeting that morning.  The train pulls into the station while she is updating the spread sheet.  She walks to her desk and docks the tablet to continue working on the updates.  She grabs her tablet and heads to the meeting and uses her tablet to take notes. On the train ride home she listens to music using the built-in Music app.  That night, at home, she takes her tablet, curls up on the couch and used the XBOX Smart Glass technology to stream a movie to her TV, enjoying the additional content she gets through Smart Glass.

That scenario is one of the reason Microsoft is attempting to unify the user experience across their different environments.

Flawed Research?

The article states that they invited 12 Windows users to test use Windows 8.  My question is how long did this research go on for?  If it was for a couple of hours then I would doubt the findings.  These findings would be the same for any operating system.  For example ask 12 people who have never used and  iPad or an Android device to change the background.  They will struggle.  Just because the 12 users are Windows users doesn’t make they immediate experts with a new operating system.  They are ahead of the curve with Windows 8 but there is still going to be a learning curve.

I want to see the research of 12 Windows users (with an open mind) using Windows 8 as their primary operating system for a couple of weeks.  What would their reaction be then?  Is Windows 8 perfect? No.  There are some usability issues that need to be addressed.  Microsoft is trying to innovate their user experience, unifying the experience across all their environments.  In the short term there will be a learning curve but in the long run user will have a consistent experience whether they are using a phone, a tablet, a PC or an XBOX. Microsoft has collected data that users are starting to use the new functionality as they overcome the initial learning curve.  This article references Dr. Neilsen’s article and provides some healthy debate on the subject.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft respond to the criticism.  Microsoft is planning to revamp their release schedule.  They are planning to have annual releases of their operating system starting early 2013.  I hope that they don’t radically change what they done.  Time will tell whether Windows 8 will be a success or just another Vista.   

In Xaml, Items Controls are made up of different template. These templates are used to control the look and behavior of the items in the list.  The power of Xaml is data binding.  Take a collection of objects and bind it to an Items Control.  Each item is displayed and by default, the string representation is displayed.  To change this behavior you have to setup a DataTemplate.  This template is then applied to each item in the collection. The problem with DataTemplates are that they don’t respond to the interactions of the control.

The interactions are achieved through visual states.  To modify these interactions you have to edit the ItemsContainerStyle.  There are the visual states are laid out through VisualStateGroups.  Here is where the Selected style is defined.  The problem is the data in the DataTemplate has no knowledge of this template or it’s interactions.  In fact DataTemplates aren’t associated with any specific control.  The same DataTemplate can be used by any control. 

To solve my problem I had to wire the DataTemplate to the states in the ItemsContainerStyle. This is an instance of a specific control.  For a GridView it is a GridViewItem. For a ListView it is a ListViewItem.  You get the point.  In prior Xaml techologies you would use AncestorBinding to walk up the object tree until you found the Item control.  You would then bind the IsSelected property to a trigger.  This allowed you to apply different styles based on this property. 

In Windows 8 Xaml, you don’t have ancestry binding nor do you have triggers.  So how do you achieve the same thing in your Windows Store application? There are RelativeSource bindings available but ancestry mode is not there.  The only mode that can help is the TemplateParent mode.  So I started out hoping that the TemplateParent was the Item control but this was not the case. For DataTemplates the parent is usually a ContentPresenter, one of the parts within the ItemsContainerStyle.

Now I can pass the IsSelected property through to the DataTemplate. First I template bind the IsSelected property to the Tag property of the ContentPresenter.

I then set up two grids in the DataTemplate to control the content that is visible based on the  IsSelected property.  I created two controls one for normal view and one for a selected view. Trough value converters I convert the value from the Tag into a visibility for the grid.

That is it. This all that is needed.  Now my selected item view will be displayed when the item is selected.  For the most part the Xaml developers will feel comfortable developing Windows 8 Store apps. There will be time where you have to find alternatives to what you’re used to but those should be the exception and not the rule. 

As I come across these I differences I will continue to post them here.  You can download some sample code here.

Today I presented ‘Reimagining the Enterprise with Windows 8’ at Boston Code Camp 18.  I talked about some challenges you may face when bringing Windows 8 into the Enterprise. I also covered some of the things that you will want to do to reimagine your enterprise applications for the enterprise. You can get the slides from my presentation here.

During the presentation I did some demos that I have covered in other blog post here are the links to those post.  The code from those demos are also available.

• Using the Metro Share Contract With Custom Data
• To Metro and Back Again: A Developer’s Tale (Part 2)

Here are the links to the reference I presented.

• Start Here: http://dev.windows.com
• Key Board Short Cuts: http://bit.ly/OHphsI
• LOB Deployment: http://bit.ly/ytQW0u

I had a decent turn out for the first presentation in the morning.  I want to thank all the people who did attend and asked some pretty good questions.

The first thing I did was get rid of the FlipView.  For this example I will use a Frame object to hold contents of my tabs.

Since I am using a frame I needed to move the contents of the tabs out to their own files. In the RadioButton click handler I use the frames navigate method to switch the content.

As each tab is clicked you will notice that the content for that tab animates in from the right. It is a subtle animation but one that enhances the experiences.  With XAML technologies you have always been able to create these animations but they were a pain to work with since you had to build them from scratch.  Easing functions and other canned tidbits were added in later versions of XAML but weren’t as rich as what you get in with Windows 8.  

In Windows 8 there are canned animations that can be applied during transitions.  The new Win 8 controls have these transitions built in.  All you have to do is provide the content.  These same transitions can be used on other controls.  For an in depth look at using animations in your applications, take a look at the MSDN documentation. For my example I decided to use a simple EntranceThemeTransition.  I added a TransitionCollection to the main grid of each tab. I then set a horizontal offset.  To make this example a little more compelling I added some grid rows for more content to the grid.

These new transitions should help you enhance your user experiences with little effort.  They been optimize for performance and usability.  I recommend you go check out what transitions are available. 

Here are the bits for you to play with.

FYI if you are interested where I got the content for my tabs take a look a Bacon Ipsum.  Add a little bacon to spice up your fake content!