Introduction
In my last article, we saw the layout design guidelines for Windows Store applications. In this article, we will see the guidelines to consider when building splash screens for our Windows Store application. A Splash screen is what is first seen in a Windows Store application; it is where the user lands first. As a general term, we are saying "The first impression is the last impression". When the user launches our application then the first thing that happens is that the Windows Store application launches the application splash screen. To provide a great user experience about our application we must customize our application's splash screen.
Splash screens are mainly used to notify the user that something is happening; in other words, the application is loading. In this article, we will go through some important guidelines provided by Microsoft to build the splash screens. As Microsoft suggested every Windows Store application must have a splash screen. Let's see those guidelines.
Customizable Splash Screens
Your Windows Store application splash screen must be built using the background color and the transparent image on that. This background color and image make your application splash screen very good to display. Make your splash screen in such a way that we can make it the way you want later; basically, keep your splash screen simple.
Create Extended Splash Screens
If your Windows Store application needs to load any data or pull the data from the network then use the extended splash screens. We will see how to create an extended splash screen in my future article.
No advertisements
Splash screens are mainly used to provide a launching experience to your user. Splash screens are displayed before an app is ready so placing an advertisement in the splash screen makes your user experience bad; they may think they have opened some other application.
No Multiple Images
While preparing a splash screen for your application use only one image on the splash screen which resembles your application. Don't use multiple images on the application's splash screen.
Non-descriptive
Every Windows Store application splash screen must not contain any description of the application. For example instead of placing any description about your application in the splash screen, place it inside the application, don't use the splash screen for that.
Resemblance Image
Use only the image which resembles your application. Also, use only those colors which resemble your application, which makes one unique identity to identify your application.
Transparent Image
When creating a splash screen for your Windows Store application use a transparent PNG image without any background color for the image. If your image contains any background color and you are also providing the splash screen background color and the two colors are different then it will not look good.
Three copies of the image
As we discussed in my last article layout design guidelines for Windows Store applications in the market various sizes devices are available. To support those devices as well as to support the various orientations three different sizes of an image are to be supplied for the splash screen. The following are the specified scaling factor and image size:
Listen to the dismissed event
Listen for the splash screens dismissed event to show your initial event-related UI. Don't perform any action or don't raise an event on the splash screen; instead, use the splash screen to dismiss the event. To have a greater user experience use animation as the splash screen dismisses.
Conclusion
By following these guidelines for your application's splash screen you can make a great first impression on the user. In the next article, we will learn how to create a splash screen.