[Windows Phone 7 Apps and Games] cizake:
Hi everybody

We recently published Pikchur for WP7 and I would like to introduce to XDA-Developers community our photo-sharing application for feedback.

Direct link on Zune:

http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=99bec83c-a185-e011-986b-78e7d1fa76f8

Would love to read your comments, request for new features.

Florian

PS: APOLOGIES FOR THE SUBJECT - I THOUGHT I HAD THE [APP] IN THE SUBJECT. CANNOT EDIT TO CORRECT. SORRY :(

About Pikchur for WP7:

Pikchur allows users to quickly connect and share photos to many popular social networks, micro-blogging services, and media hosting websites. The Windows Phone 7 application is packed with new platform features such as Bing map integration for geotagging, pivot controls for organizing photo information and comments, and a live tile, so users can see their most recent photo on the phone’s start screen. The application was launched simultaneously in five languages, provides privacy options, and includes Facebook and Twitter integration, so users can start sharing instantly.

Pikchur users are content pushers. They use the service to push out a single photo to multiple platforms. Their goal is to share quickly and broadly. This type of social user is different from other photo sharing users, which may be more participatory in a photography community like Flickr or exclusive like Instagram, which does not have public photo-streams.

The primary experience goal with Pikchur for Windows Phone 7 was the speed to which a user would be able to launch the device camera or select a previously taken photo from an album and share their photo. Post set up, a user requires only two steps to achieve this goal. Similar to applications like Shazam the application start screen is explicit in the engagement flow. Two large buttons dominate the screen ‘take with camera’ or ‘select from pictures’ and indicate to the user their first steps. After launching the camera or photo albums and confirming a picture, the users are returned to a display screen inside the application where they can add a caption and toggle the social networks they want to share with on and off. This toggle feature allows users to promptly adjust the pipeline for any given photo. This is useful sometimes when a user segments their own audience into different categories.

The user experience for the first launch of Pikchur for Windows Phone 7 was task based and focused on the primary goals of the user. Future versions are intended to include more exploratory and Pikchur community features. With the focus on completing tasks, the design led with a Pivot control, one of two new types of controls available for displaying content in Windows Phone 7. The other control is called a Panorama and is particularly useful when leading with content heavy applications such as news applications.

The Pivot control works essentially like a tab menu, except often not all options are visible on the screen. Windows Phone 7 breaks both page and screen metaphors for digital media design. The potential canvas for an interactive application moves beyond the screen both horizontally and vertically. When a user selects a Pivot menu item, it becomes the new focus and other menu items shift. This type of motion and presentation of information allows users to familiarize themselves with the menu options. The order of the pivot menu items also presents a hierarchy with the primary tasks or content being placed earlier in a flow.

The Pivot control works particularly well with heavy tasked based applications because it provides a menu bar that sits at the bottom of the screen called the App Bar. This App Bar holds icon buttons with actions specific to the current screen. The App Bar is a distinguishing feature of Windows Phone 7, both in its heavy icon use and emphasis on context. Icons are a powerful visual system that signal actions to users. Without having to process too much information, users can determine the primary actions to take on a screen. A hierarchy of actions is also placed in the App Bar, with primary functions placed left to right.

As an example of how the App Bar works, in Pikchur for Windows Phone 7, after a user has selected or taken a photo for upload, they are presented with a photo submit screen allowing users to add a caption and select the services where they wish to send the photo. In the App bar, two options are presented. These options are specific to the photo submit form and help to keep momentum in a users flow through an application. Users are able to better flow through an application when next step action items are so clearly expressed. The first button in Pikchur is the Send option, followed by Edit. For the Pikchur user, again the primary experience goal is the speed to sharing. The photo submit screen presents a minimum set of options that will fulfill the users need to customize before sending. Most of the options such as the post to services are already set to defaults in the setting so that the need to make tweaks on a particular post is minimal. Whereas adding filters or special photo editing features are presented early or as part of the submit form for other photo sharing application, this step is placed as a secondary action both in the App Bar and in the application. This additional step of editing adds more decision steps for the user and slows down the speed to send goal. Separating out the edit function also allows for greater expansion of the edit features for later versions. These types of experience architecture decisions reflect both an understanding of the brand values and the particular type of audience.