MICROSOFT_PRESS_EBOOK_PROGRAMMING_WINDOWS_8_APPS_WITH_HTML_CSS_AND_JAVASCRIPT_PDF

live in the hearts of your customers. If you can deliver joy to them through your app, then I think you’ll
have a winner!
Another meaning of “tailored” implies that the kinds of apps we’ve been building in this book—apps
that run full screen and deeply immerse a user in an experience—lend themselves well to being very
specific to both the device and the user’s context. As we saw in Chapter 9, sensors give you the ability to
know the device’s relationship to the physical world, which is an extension of the user who is holding
that device. Ask then, “What can I do with that information? How can the app really light up when it has
a deeper understanding of where the user is and how the user is moving about in this world of ours? Is
there something more the app can do to say, ‘Aren’t you glad you brought me along?’”
To differentiate your app, think through how a consumer might use various form factors in different
situations and have the app present itself differently in those contexts. This kind of tailoring means that
the app surfaces the most relevant features or content for the most likely or appropriate use cases. As
shown in the last figure of Chapter 1 within “Sidebar: The Opportunity of Per-User Licensing and Data
Roaming,” I like to think of there being one app across many devices and that the user has a much
stronger relationship to the app than to the devices it’s running on. The app and its underlying state
becomes the consistent element across the whole experience, with the devices just being the vehicles.
The more you can deliver an app that understands and support this (and obviously roaming data is
important here!), the more I think the app will stand out from others that, sure, run in the new
environment of Windows, but otherwise offer the same experience as we’ve had for many years.
So, what about being a rock star? Let’s be honest here. You’re in this game for name and fame, right?
And for the big money that could come with it? What kind of app will get you there?
In what is now the very last paragraph of this book (apart from the end-of-chapter summary), I can’t
really give you a bunch of specific ideas. (Otherwise I’d be writing those apps instead of writing books,
but someone has to do this dirty work….) But ponder this: what makes a rock star in the music industry?
Well, it’s not typically about the philosophical depth of the lyrics or the virtuosity of the musicians, it’s
about performance, personality, and sheer entertainment value. It’s about delivering a joyful experience
that turns everyday customers into raving lunatic fans who can’t wait to be your greatest champions. In
a very real way, the experience is one that truly lets people escape their everyday realities and become
part of something larger for a time, or even just part of a fantasy. And like great music or movies, the
app experience is one that people want to repeat many times over and not just check the box as
another “been there, done that.” Although there are certainly aspects of timing and sheer luck, all rock
stars—along with great athletes, Oscar-winning movies like Lord of the Rings, and so on—strive for and
achieve one thing above all: excellence. Commit yourself to that. Commit yourself to excellence in
everything you do—not just in your apps, but in all parts of your life. Such striving, certainly, will
eventually bring many rewards!
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