I’m really hoping to be able to present this year at TechEd (I’m a natural ham and love being on stage). I’m really interested in Live Tiles, but I have a fear that as so often happens some people won’t truly understand what a Live Tile should and should not do, and will dilute or even ruin the Live Tile experience. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the theory behind the LT concept, and I’m not sure that Microsoft is doing the education it really should on this subject.
I mean how many times have we seen a cool UI idea, that gets left by the way side because it gets abused. I think we all need to do what we can to make sure that LT UX remains relevant for end users for years to come.
So anyways, I just put this Content Submission in for a session at TechEd 2012 in New Zealand. What do you think, is this something you would like to see? And if it was to be picked up, what sort of questions do you have on this subject, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
TechEd New Zealand 2012 Call for Content Submission Confirmation
Submitter Information
Matthew Hintzen
Topic Information
Track: Windows 8: Metro Style Applications
Session Type: Open Session
Session Title:
Live Tiles, The Good, The Great and The Ugly
Description
Live Tiles are all the new rage and talk of the world in WP7 and with Windows 8 release just around the corner they are going to become even more important to your software. Your users are going to come to expect your live tile to actually be alive and meaningful.
To do a Live Tile correctly however takes planning and an understanding of the Metro Experience Live Tile update architecture and life cycle. I'm hoping to help you to make sure your Live Tile is Great and plays well with Metro.
In this session you will discover what makes for a good Live Tile, a bad Live Tile, and a "just don't do that". We'll walk thru:
- Determining what should be on a Live Tile (and what shouldn't).
- How to make the tile engaging and informative without being distracting.
- Creating a Web Service that feeds the Live Tile in the way that best works with the Metro UI life cycle.
Audience Participation will be greatly appreciated! Many of the Live Tile examples that are currently out there that show you "how" to do Live Tiles are not Best Practice! We look thru some not so good examples and really understand WHY they are should be avoided. For Live Tiles to be useful to the End Users we must use our great power with great responsibility