Richer Application Experiences
Windows 7 helps you create a better user experience for your customers, helping
you surface
capabilities, services, and information that are most relevant to the way your customers work.
According to early feedback, new features such as Windows Touch, sensor capabilities, and enhanced
location-based services appeal to customers. You can leverage these features in your
solutions.
You can enhance applications with Library Support, and improve usability with
the Windows Taskbar and Windows Ribbon, all of which enable a more productive
experience for clients. In fact, many users are already using the Taskbar and Ribbon in Microsoft
Office Professional 2007. We expect they will welcome this familiar interface in your
applications.
Touch Capabilities
Windows Touch provides a more intuitive user experience. By leveraging Touch,
you can create new user experiences, even implementing on the new generation of
small computers, for greater portability. In Windows 7, you can enable users to
choose from navigations such as rotation and zooming. Your developers can use a
tactile API to create an application that manipulates photos and uses gestures such as "pinch" or "two-finger expand" to interact with a
touch-capable PC or device.
Scenario: Rapid Access to Information in Command, Control, and Communications
Imagine a new Command, Control and Communications (3C) application that uses video cameras to
monitor the security of a facility. Users access video and sensor information intuitively
through touch. The user quickly touches a screen to scan an entire, high-profile facility,
helping her quickly determine whether different areas are secure or unsecure. Through
leveraging sensor capabilities in Windows 7 and sensor hardware, the application also detects
temperatures and ambient light conditions within the facility. Touch helps the
user scan through information quickly, identifying intruders, fire, or other
threats.
Improved Usability Features
You can use features of Windows 7 to further enhance applications, simplifying
and streamlining the user experience. Library support, the Windows Taskbar with
Jump Lists, and the
Ribbon can create a more intuitive environment for PC users. You might differentiate your firm
by adopting these features in your applications early on.
Scenario: Increase Productivity and Usability in Content Management
Applications can leverage Windows 7 library support to reach documents and other information
across folders, or across several machines in a library. This supports teams of users in a
more intuitive way. In applications such as content management where users move, archive, and
manage files, you can leverage the enhanced Windows Taskbar to show progress in time-consuming
operations such as media burning, downloads, or file copying.
The content management application can use Jump Lists—files, URLs, tasks or custom items that
open within the application to increase users' productivity. You can program initial
Jump Lists into applications, anticipating users' needs. Developers can use Win32 APIs to program
the Scenic Ribbon, improving usability by exposing the application's most frequently accessed
features directly to the end user.
Check out these great resources:
Give Your Application the Green Light—Stay ahead of the competition, win new business, and keep your customers satisfied by making your application compatible with the latest Microsoft technologies.
MSDN
Windows Developer Center —Stay informed
and up-to-date with valuable Windows 7 resources that feature compatibility issues, development
efforts, application readiness, and community insight.
MSDN Windows Application Compatibility Page—Access forums, get answers
from the community, and find the most current resources to help you make your applications
compatible with Windows 7.
Sign In
