All posts tagged Start Screen

Well, hopefully you are back because you enjoyed Metro Studio, Part 1 – Splash Screen of my series on Metro Studio, by Syncfusion, a wonderful tool that I use to create great looking splash screens, toolbars, application icons and more.  In my last post in the series, we discussed how to use Metro Studio to create a simple splash screen for a Windows Phone 8 application.

In Part 2 of the series, I will show you how to use Metro Studio to create an application icon, store icon and tile images for our application.  I will also introduce you to a great little tool that will take an icon we create in Metro Studio to produce a splash screen, application icon, store icon, tile images and more for your Windows Phone 8 application.

Windows Phone 8 Icons

Just a little primer on Windows Phone 8 icons/tiles might be necessary here.  If you already know everything there is to know about them, you could skip this section.  However, if you don’t, let me first give you a quick definition of a tile and it’s goal.  Here is an excerpt from the Windows 8 developer site reference that would also apply to Windows Phone 8:

A tile is the front door into an app. Sitting on the Start screen, it is an extension of the app and can provide much more personal and engaging information than a traditional icon. Invest in designing a great tile to draw people into your app.

Provide fresh content through live tiles and notifications to let people feel connected to your app. Make sure you help your users connect with the people and devices that they care about.

Though we aren’t going to talk about live tiles and notifications in depth, you will want to consider the design of your icons/tiles to accommodate them in the future.  Here is a great reference for all your Windows Phone 8 tile needs.  It can give you a lot of great information that will enable to you to plan ahead and create great solutions for your application.  I will, however, take you step by step through creating an application icon, a set of tiles and a store icon for your sample application.  Read more