The Lumia 800 guide on What Not To Do

Most people like starting things off on a positive annotation, but I'm of the belief that you should get the horrid stuff out of the fashion outset, and go uphill from there.

Since I got my Windows Phone seven I accept taken it upon myself to bring as many people as I tin over to our side. You lot tin can think of me as 1 of the Microsoft WP7 Evangelists – but without the, yous know, money. Then I was rather pleased when I found out a family member was getting the Nokia Lumia 800. Nokia took their sweet fourth dimension to finally get a telephone to market so it could merely be assumed that it would exist a really rockin' device, right?

After playing with the phone I immediately realized that was only half true.  As a programmer I pride myself in knowing that I have developed great stuff. It isn't perfect (else I would exist Popcap),  but I avoid the obvious pitfalls as much as I can, and for the nearly part, exercise lots of QA before publishing.  Sadly, it looks like Nokia (and Microsoft), who must have canonical information technology all, didn't focus too much on the software side. Here's why…

App Highlights

This app is definitely one of the most decent preloaded apps. Information technology has various sections (weber's picks, starter kit, turn information technology up!!!, addictive, wellness+, and foodies) and inside each at that place are about 10 apps listed.

I actually quite like the thought and premise behind it – people can plough their telephone on for the first fourth dimension and be given a whole bunch of suggestions based on what they're looking for. This would definitely exist useful for first-time Windows Phone users, and even more than so for start-time smartphone users.

My only real complaint hither is the operation – although possibly I'thousand biased because one of my apps is in the music department ;-).  Until every detail has loaded (which comprises an Icon, a name and publisher) it is totally unresponsive.  On a fast connection, this might not exist likewise noticeable, but for the other half of us, it simply seems similar they should have hired someone similar Jeff Wilcox.

Contacts Transfer

Simply about the quickest mode to see that a programmer has washed a rush-job on an application is to look at the icon and splash screen. The icon is the first thing the user will see, and then get in expert – or at the very to the lowest degree, adequate. Back when WP was start released I can remember a few applications in the Marketplace having the default icon (grey background with a white star in the center) – I don't know if those slipped through or if the post-obit certification requirement was merely added later on that:

"[iv.5] Verify that the icons are representative of the application, and match the icons that are present on the device afterward the XAP packet is installed."

Either way, it has been a long fourth dimension since I have seen this.

The very next thing the user sees is the splash screen. This is a static epitome that shows for a few seconds while the app loads and usually has the title, or sometimes an paradigm that is very close to what the chief menu looks similar to give the user the impression that it loaded faster.

Unfortunately, in that location is no rule stating that y'all need to have i representative of your application or even different from the default.  Almost, if not all of yous have seen the following splash screen:

That is the default 1 that Microsoft gives you – and tells you that the developer was too lazy to spend 10 minutes making a custom one.  Hell, even removing it completely shows that you at to the lowest degree thought about it.

This brings me to the primary problem with Contacts Transfer…they didn't change the default splash screen!

Nokia Drive

Microsoft has conspicuously laid out guidelines to designing a "Metro" interface – and they have provided actually slap-up tools that make it pretty simple to make an application that fit's nicely into the UI of the rest of the phone.

So what have Nokia washed wrong? They didn't change the design of Nokia Drive (from the N9) – they just ported it. OK, to be fair, they did add iii little dots on the button at the lower correct, plus they made the + and - buttons take foursquare corners.

I can't for the life of me understand why they could not replace that bottom bar with the "App Bar" from the Windows Telephone SDK. Now I know that there is no requirement regarding this in the certification guide, but the whole app just feels like a fish out of water. They managed to pull off Nokia Maps really nicely, so why not this?

There is a corking article regarding this, and Metro design in general here: When Metro Design Falls Off the Tracks
You can expect a quarter way down for the app bar specifically.

The following is a screenshot of Nokia Drive on the N9 – but virtually the but mode you can tell is because I only told yous…

For some other great example of how important using the tools that the SDK provides, look no farther than xMaps.

For some reason they decided that they would design their ain app bar to try mimic the real one. I can't figure out why they would do this, and besides looking shoddy, information technology'due south just clunky to use.

UPDATE:
Various comments have pointed out that Nokia Drive is designed this mode purely for ease-of-use on the go.
I had disregarded that as I had not used information technology "in the field", and in this lite is perfectly valid reasoning.

Trip Counselor

This has to be the worst excuse for an application that I've seen. How Microsoft didn't stop them from pre-loading this is across me.

In that location are typically a few means to brand an application for Windows Phone. Kickoff at that place is XNA and Silverlight (or a combination thereof).  Allow's call 'em the Light Side. Then in that location are sorry excuses for apps that are just HTML (or should I say HTML5, because that seems to be the buzzword that the general populous deems to be cool). These are virtually definitely the Night Side.

Now before the HTML-devotees among you lot start looking up where I live, effort empathise that I am not saying HTML isn't smashing. I'thousand simply saying it's a useless replacement for a native app (OK, XNA and SL aren't exactly native, only you get my drift).

In that location are far too many reasons and not enough infinite hither to explain why I believe the above argument – maybe that'southward a topic for another mean solar day. For now, allow's just focus on the UI. Below is a screenshot of the app:

I know some of yous will say "but information technology's kind of metroey!" – because from what I have seen, a big proportion of people think that Metro == foursquare edges. It doesn't. Square things only happen to be very clean. In reality I'm giving them more than credit [with the screenshot] than they deserve because that is actually a screenshot from Firefox on PC. On the actual app the boxes are rounded. Y'all know, like the iPhone UI. And that right there is one-half the problem, because everyone who gets a Lumia 800 will be introduced to the lovely world of metro, and and so as soon as they discover this app they will get slammed back into the world of Apple. You may love or detest the iPhone UI, only regardless, that UI should stay on their devices, and our UI should stay on our devices.

The other one-half of the problem is that you can actually feel that it isn't a real app.  It's sluggish and unfriendly.  At least with PhoneGap  they endeavor to throw in a few real Silverlight controls here and in that location, but this is only a Silverlight app with a WebBrowser control navigated to their website.  You tin endeavor the app out yourself by opening your mobile browser (brand sure that it's gear up to mobile view in settings) and navigating to TripAdvisor.

In summary, I experience that Nokia has really rushed the software side of things – and should rather take left these apps off entirely.  I know with a bunch of these things it sounds similar I am nitpicking, but Nokia is Microsoft's most important partner.  People will judge WP7 based on their devices purely because it looks like Nokia may start dominating the market place in terms of sheer numbers.  On the plus side though, Nokia take provided us with a good What Not To Practice guide – and I hope it helps some of you overlooking some obvious things while developing.

Oh, and is the bodily device practiced? No - information technology's great.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/lumia-800-guide-what-not-do

Posted by: offuttlity1983.blogspot.com

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