Apr 26, 2012
Windows 8, Metro UI and Visual Studio 11
Windows 8:
Windows 8 is Microsoft’s next generation Operating System
that has been completely rebuilt from the ground up and is primarily aimed at
touch enabled desktop / laptop and tablet devices. It still provides the
ability to work using a mouse but to take full advantage of the Metro style
interface, a touch device is required. Windows 8 also provides the regular
desktop interface which feels and functions very similar to the familiar
Windows 7 desktop.
The Metro interface is different from the regular desktop in
many ways. The main theme is that of
pages (like browsers) with square and/or rectangular tile which have the
ability to provide Live information pertinent to the specific app it belongs
to. Apps are launched by touching/clicking the tiles and only the app active in
the forefront is functional, other apps that have lost focus go into a suspend
status, which is actually a snapshot view of the app from the moment it lost focus. Switching to a suspended app resumes
the app from the very same point it was suspended at and the current app goes
into suspended mode. Apps are not normally permitted to function in the
background and there are other very strict requirements for getting an app certified,
including the ability to launch within 15 seconds, otherwise the app is kicked
off. The App function in full screen modes and the other mode is the snapped
mode which snaps the app to the left or right edge of the screen and this is
the only way to have two apps active simultaneously. Due to very stringent
design specifications for Metro apps, the Windows 8 OS performs very
efficiently of various devices and the user experience does not suffer on less
powered CPUs on Tablets compared to the laptops or desktops.
Metro Interface:
The Metro Interface is composed of Live and/or Dead Tiles in
square or rectangular shapes. The inspiration behind this UI is the road or
guidance signs in a Metro city/location. For examples signs in a subway station
or an airport which provide relevant information at a glance in a precise
manner. This was first introduced on Windows Phone 7+ devices and same concept
has been upgraded for larger screens. Having used Windows Phone for about 5
months, I am familiar with the MUI and have developed a liking for it based on
the productivity improvement. The Live Tiles provide upto date information and
one can delve deeper into the information if desired. I have also used the
Windows 8 Metro UI on my laptop and although it isn’t a touch screen, but even
with a mouse it works very well. It takes a week or so to discover the
functionality and also to get used to the paradigm shift from the GUI to MUI,
but once I discovered the ins and outs, and used it for a few weeks, it becomes
a much more enjoyable experience, especially when I have the same UI on my
phone and hopefully on my next tablet. It does take some effort initially to
continue using and learning the MUI, but that’s a very short and shallow learning curve and very quickly
one would start realizing the benefit of shifting from traditional GUI to MUI.
Visual Studio 11:
Metro Apps Development: The IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) for developing Metro style Apps is Visual Studio 11 on a Windows *
device. VS 11 on other versions of Windows do not have the ability to develop
Metro Apps at this time. Several prebuilt templates are available to get
started quickly with most of the functionalities built-in. Until now most of
the developers have focused on using the templates and app using the Metro UI
in a more creative way may start cropping up soon. One thing to keep in mind is
that MUI is primarily a touch enabled UI and designers/developers are
encouraged to keep that in mind when coming up with ideas for MUI apps. Most of
the current apps being developed in Metro style are more for information
consumption and not information/data manipulation. Next version of Office suite
is supposed to have a MUI mode and that would provide guidance to
developers/designers on developing such content development apps. The potential
is there and is pretty huge so the early developers of such apps would
certainly have the first market advantage. Due to the strict design and
performance specifications by Microsoft, the developers do not have the freedom
to go about designing apps to do whatever they want to, and that should in fact
serve as a positive move towards a more stable and efficient experience.
Feb 22, 2012
Agile Life - A Personal Scrum - KanBan
Work in progress...
You must have heard so much talk in the business world about Project Management and various approaches to it. Most popular terms used in project management are Agile, Scrum, KanBan, Lean, and a few others. Everybody has been managing projects throughout their personal lives in one way or the other, which made me think of why not apply the same principles of project management to these as well. So I started this blog with the aim of figuring out how to accomplish this and how effective this approach would be. The more I thought and wrote about it, the more I realized that I am discovering* a whole new approach of making my life more manageable and at the same time achieving results that seemed to be always becoming ever so farther away, as more clutter (new goals) joined the apparently un-manageable list of "Things-to-do". *(I am pretty sure there are many others who would have come across this discovery before me). Lets go through the journey of discovering and applying the agile project management principles to our day to day life and hopefully get a grip on our life and achieving results we are always striving for, but seems to be just out of reach.
The project management theme I am going to use is more leaning towards SCRUM and KanBan, both belong to the Agile category made popular by so many large corporation from almost every major industry, but used more effectively by aviation and software industries.
To get started with Agile Project Management, first step involves making a list of features required in the end product/service. In our personal lives, we can equate the feature set to goals (both are the end results we want to achieve). So here we are actually setting up goals, and the I approach I prefer is to make use of the "Wheel of Life". I wrote a blog entry some time ago about achieving success in personal life and mentioned the famous "Wheel of Life", which is basically a wheel with 8 spokes that cover various aspects of life and if all of these are well balanced, then the life becomes a smooth rolling wheel. For each spoke on the Wheel of Life, you should write down a list of goals that would result in a perfect 10 score. The trick here is to be very specific in what the goals are, not general goals like " I want to be healthy, wealthy and wise.." . Explain what being healthy means to you in terms of ideal weight, BMI. Indicate exactly how much wealth will make you wealthy. What being wise means? does it mean getting trained on a new skill, or getting a degree in a particular field... and so on.
You must have heard so much talk in the business world about Project Management and various approaches to it. Most popular terms used in project management are Agile, Scrum, KanBan, Lean, and a few others. Everybody has been managing projects throughout their personal lives in one way or the other, which made me think of why not apply the same principles of project management to these as well. So I started this blog with the aim of figuring out how to accomplish this and how effective this approach would be. The more I thought and wrote about it, the more I realized that I am discovering* a whole new approach of making my life more manageable and at the same time achieving results that seemed to be always becoming ever so farther away, as more clutter (new goals) joined the apparently un-manageable list of "Things-to-do". *(I am pretty sure there are many others who would have come across this discovery before me). Lets go through the journey of discovering and applying the agile project management principles to our day to day life and hopefully get a grip on our life and achieving results we are always striving for, but seems to be just out of reach.
The project management theme I am going to use is more leaning towards SCRUM and KanBan, both belong to the Agile category made popular by so many large corporation from almost every major industry, but used more effectively by aviation and software industries.
To get started with Agile Project Management, first step involves making a list of features required in the end product/service. In our personal lives, we can equate the feature set to goals (both are the end results we want to achieve). So here we are actually setting up goals, and the I approach I prefer is to make use of the "Wheel of Life". I wrote a blog entry some time ago about achieving success in personal life and mentioned the famous "Wheel of Life", which is basically a wheel with 8 spokes that cover various aspects of life and if all of these are well balanced, then the life becomes a smooth rolling wheel. For each spoke on the Wheel of Life, you should write down a list of goals that would result in a perfect 10 score. The trick here is to be very specific in what the goals are, not general goals like " I want to be healthy, wealthy and wise.." . Explain what being healthy means to you in terms of ideal weight, BMI. Indicate exactly how much wealth will make you wealthy. What being wise means? does it mean getting trained on a new skill, or getting a degree in a particular field... and so on.
Windows Phone 7.5 Mango Impressions
Work in progress...
I got my HTC Radar 4G, back in December and having used it for over two months now, I feel comfortable writing down my views on the phone OS. I am not going to write about the hardware as there are numerous reviews out there and there's nothing more for me to add, except for agreeing with the majority out there that it is a great entry level Windows 7.5 phone with solid performance and nothing much to gripe about except for the ability to change battery, but then I think to myself ... Hmmm, why do I need to change the battery? not right now atleast...
I have always had great respect for Microsoft products but always feel that they almost always fail to highlight the best features to the end user. Over the years they have come up with some very promising products but majority of them lost their appeal due to a general perception of them being too complex. For example, OneNote is one of my favorite applications, and I see so much potential in it being a great information organization tool. But MS presents it as a Note taking app, whose utility is not clear to almost 90% of MS Office users who got this product bundled with the other Office suite apps. Majority of the people I have talked to have either never opened it once, and others gave it a try but never understood what should it be used for. Another product I was very fond of was PhotoDraw, that probably never move on from Beta state. I am just dreading the day Windows Phone follow the same path, except in this case it might have some staying power due to the fact that the Metro interface is going to be standard for future Windows OS (Windows 8) and other MS products including Xbox, and Windows tablets. MS came out with Windows phone 7 and it was pitched as a phone OS to get things done faster. Now looking back I can see two major flaws in thWindows 7 launch. First it appeared to be an intermediate product aimed at getting to the market ontime rather than a final product. A lot of features were left for the next iteration named Mango. Coming out with newer versions is standard but coming out with a better version of the same product is not. The success of Apple iPhone and Google Andoid phones is based on the first experience a user get. They know there are updates in the pipeline but what they get are phones they are happy with and not looking for future updates. Windows phone 7 should never have happened, just like Windows Millenium and more recently Vista. Windows 7.5 is such a nice experience but by the time it came around, WP 7 had already confused the people as being a lame attempt to counter iPhone and Android. Now that WP 7.5 is out there, there isnt much of a choice on handsets with various providers. I have T-Mobile as my provider and had a couple of handsets to choose from. Next almost everybody who has a WP, says they just wanted to give it a try and then they loved it. It's hard to find someone who got a WP because he really wanted one, but at the same time it's hard to find someone who used one and is not impressed with it, and that includes me. The Metro interface keeps you focused on the information most relevant to you, missed calls, new emails/messages since you checked them last time, and any number of new notifications/updates on items you pin as LIVE TILES to your home screen. It almost all about LIVE TILES that people either don't understand or understand which makes WP unique. Just as it is difficult to explain how nice a a roller coaster ride is without having someone accompany you on it, it is difficult to explain the usefulness of these live tiles without having them use it for a week or two. That's about how long it took me to convince myself to stay with WP and not switch back to Android.
I got my HTC Radar 4G, back in December and having used it for over two months now, I feel comfortable writing down my views on the phone OS. I am not going to write about the hardware as there are numerous reviews out there and there's nothing more for me to add, except for agreeing with the majority out there that it is a great entry level Windows 7.5 phone with solid performance and nothing much to gripe about except for the ability to change battery, but then I think to myself ... Hmmm, why do I need to change the battery? not right now atleast...
I have always had great respect for Microsoft products but always feel that they almost always fail to highlight the best features to the end user. Over the years they have come up with some very promising products but majority of them lost their appeal due to a general perception of them being too complex. For example, OneNote is one of my favorite applications, and I see so much potential in it being a great information organization tool. But MS presents it as a Note taking app, whose utility is not clear to almost 90% of MS Office users who got this product bundled with the other Office suite apps. Majority of the people I have talked to have either never opened it once, and others gave it a try but never understood what should it be used for. Another product I was very fond of was PhotoDraw, that probably never move on from Beta state. I am just dreading the day Windows Phone follow the same path, except in this case it might have some staying power due to the fact that the Metro interface is going to be standard for future Windows OS (Windows 8) and other MS products including Xbox, and Windows tablets. MS came out with Windows phone 7 and it was pitched as a phone OS to get things done faster. Now looking back I can see two major flaws in thWindows 7 launch. First it appeared to be an intermediate product aimed at getting to the market ontime rather than a final product. A lot of features were left for the next iteration named Mango. Coming out with newer versions is standard but coming out with a better version of the same product is not. The success of Apple iPhone and Google Andoid phones is based on the first experience a user get. They know there are updates in the pipeline but what they get are phones they are happy with and not looking for future updates. Windows phone 7 should never have happened, just like Windows Millenium and more recently Vista. Windows 7.5 is such a nice experience but by the time it came around, WP 7 had already confused the people as being a lame attempt to counter iPhone and Android. Now that WP 7.5 is out there, there isnt much of a choice on handsets with various providers. I have T-Mobile as my provider and had a couple of handsets to choose from. Next almost everybody who has a WP, says they just wanted to give it a try and then they loved it. It's hard to find someone who got a WP because he really wanted one, but at the same time it's hard to find someone who used one and is not impressed with it, and that includes me. The Metro interface keeps you focused on the information most relevant to you, missed calls, new emails/messages since you checked them last time, and any number of new notifications/updates on items you pin as LIVE TILES to your home screen. It almost all about LIVE TILES that people either don't understand or understand which makes WP unique. Just as it is difficult to explain how nice a a roller coaster ride is without having someone accompany you on it, it is difficult to explain the usefulness of these live tiles without having them use it for a week or two. That's about how long it took me to convince myself to stay with WP and not switch back to Android.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)