Develop Bugs

Use your live tiles to create a beautiful wallpaper effect

So, we all love our metro UI! Okay, few of us don't but many do. All those big live tiles, adding aesthetics to functionality. Maybe, after a few days, months or years for that matter, one might find it boring to have same tile-tile monochrome layout and a bunch of theme colors. While there is not much that can be done about it, here is a cool trick which adds some refreshment to the look of WP7 home screen! Now, let's admit it, we all have grown up with the concept of wallpapers. They're everywhere - on Windows PC, Mac, Linux, Android, even on iOS! (Though I wonder, how pleasing a wallpaper looks when icons are being filled up linearly, leaving less than 25% of the wallpaper visible and your app icon falls right on the eye of the cute face in the wallpaper!) For WP7 home screen - no wallpaper. This trick allows us to convert the tiles into pieces of wallpaper so that the screen looks like beautiful picture made by solving a kind of jigsaw puzzle.
By no means, I have used any of my creativity in this. I found this trick buried in a Japanese blog here. I thought it would be cool to share it! All credit goes to the author of the article.
The catch is to make image resembling an array of live tiles like this one:
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And then use it as a webpage and pin the web link to start using IE.
Actual steps are like this:
1. Create (pick some wallpaper or crop your favorite one) an image with resolution of your screen, i.e., 358x728.
2. Then add black frame of thickness 12px as shown in the picture. Tiles are 173x173.
3. Upload this image to a web service which allows you to view image file as image right inside your browser. Dropbox public folder works fine.
4. Here comes the tricky part. Open up the image in IE on your WP7 device. IE will think of it as a webpage. Adjust the magnification and position of your webpage (Which is your picture) such that the first tile such that, it fills your screen edge to edge horizontally, and the top edge of the image is aligned to the address bar. So, now you have left edge of the tile aligned to left of screen, right to right and top to top. Ignore the bottom edge. Example:
5. Go to menu and select pin to start. Your tile will be pinned to start as a webpage shortcut live tile!
6. Repeat procedure for all the tiles.
7. Now, go to start rearrange the tiles so that overall appearance is of a complete picture.
So, that was easy, wasn't that? Just a bit tricky with alignment, right? I have a simpler solution! Why not create eight different images, one for each tile having resolution square pixels equal to the width of IE page? Just create a square image with width equal to that of IE and then zoom it to 100% by a simple double tap. This was image will be already aligned. Only catch is that the image will be scaled to fit into the tile, but the difference was not noticeable when I gave it a try.
Agreed to the fact that this thing would take up all the screen space reducing productivity of the live tiles, the trick is worth try. We can have the tiles below the wallpaper. It also acts as a little puzzle. Mix up the tiles and then rearrange them to complete the picture! Its worth a shot if you are already tired of old look and want to try something new. Share your wallpapers in the post.
P.S.: Don't forget to have a look at original post here. If you don't understand Japanese, Google translate is your friend. I don't understand it either!

this is cool. It's been around for a while though. You don't have to create and post an image to make it work. With some finesse and care, you can just zoom it just right, pin it, slide over, pin it, etc... This is a homescreen thing I did back in April.

Wow, very nice idea Thanks for the tip There's also stuff like live tile generators or creators.. but this method is much easier

munkeyphyst said:
this is cool. It's been around for a while though. You don't have to create and post an image to make it work. With some finesse and care, you can just zoom it just right, pin it, slide over, pin it, etc... This is a homescreen thing I did back in April.
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That's really awesome!

experience7 said:
Wow, very nice idea Thanks for the tip There's also stuff like live tile generators or creators.. but this method is much easier
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Yeah! Its more innovative and novel than easy!

akshay2000 said:
That's really awesome!
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thanks.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

How do you prefer your tiles/icons?

Just wondering, many developers I talk to tell me people want their tiles to use the phone's accent colour. Some of them even though not very impressed with the results gave in under feedback pressure and created a tile that fits in with the theme.
I personally like it when a tile shows some personality and value my AMOLED screen with vibrant colours. To take to recent examples, even if the bright yellow hurts the eyes I still prefer IM+'s tile over Kik's that I find very bland.
If all developers were using accent colours homescreens would just be unicoloured massive blocks, which isn't very flattering (my opinion).
I took 2 pictures of my phone to reflect the difference, what do you think?
PS: You've got to love that Accuweather Live Tile
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...I believe it depends about your habits and how you use your phone. If you like to walk through your life, staring at the screen, then colourful tiles might be less boring. However this is exactly what WP7 wants you not to do (Really?)....
I for myself, I prefer simple, unicolour, but informative tiles. It tells me on one glance what's up on my mails, calls, contacts, calender etc. and I can either interact or put the phone back in my pocket for later. This is why I love WP7. But this is just me...

I am mixed. I like it when apps follow the theme especially if its a live tile that shows a counter like say Rowi or Birdsong twitter apps.
I prefer official apps to have their own unique icons like you stated im+, vevo, imdb etc, makes it much more recognizable on the phone.
So 3rd party apps follows the phone theme, first party apps follow their trademark logos

I am mixed to ... something like this

I like a combination of the two. If all tiles were a plain color with a white icon it would be boring and if all tiles were detailed pictures and animations it would be too busy. I have mine all spread out.

FTC said:
...I believe it depends about your habits and how you use your phone. If you like to walk through your life, staring at the screen, then colourful tiles might be less boring. However this is exactly what WP7 wants you not to do (Really?)....
I for myself, I prefer simple, unicolour, but informative tiles. It tells me on one glance what's up on my mails, calls, contacts, calender etc. and I can either interact or put the phone back in my pocket for later. This is why I love WP7. But this is just me...
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I understand what you mean but it's like saying I don't care what my car looks like as long as it has 4 wheels. A nice touch of paint is always nice .

sayonical said:
I am mixed. I like it when apps follow the theme especially if its a live tile that shows a counter like say Rowi or Birdsong twitter apps.
I prefer official apps to have their own unique icons like you stated im+, vevo, imdb etc, makes it much more recognizable on the phone.
So 3rd party apps follows the phone theme, first party apps follow their trademark logos
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Click to collapse
Actually that's what I wish for mainly. Official apps at the very least should stick to their colours, I just find that Kik tile weird.
Like thesecondsfade says a good combination of the two is nice. Live tiles also go a long way towards improving the homescreen, Flixster and Prime TV seen above being good examples.

Personally, I'd say it's not so much that the app should follow the phones theme, but it should adhere to the metro clean design method.
Some great examples of clean app tiles that aren't confined to the phone theme would be Evernote, Shazam, TED, Flixster (Live Tile Disabled), IMDB, and IM+. One App that still looks good, but isn't too busy would be 4th & Mayor.
Accuweather has a nice live tile, but does it really have to say AccuWeather.com on the bottom? It'd look so much better without that line.

Peew971 said:
I understand what you mean but it's like saying I don't care what my car looks like as long as it has 4 wheels. A nice touch of paint is always nice .
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...well, if I understand correctly, you can change the paint (colours of tiles) with Mango. Maybe it is because of my age, but I am more fond of simple, classic designs which are not outdated after a few months like colourful, flashy designs.
I never liked the homescreen my WM or Android phones..... I don't need "eye candies"....

I have my Live Tiles and plain tiles in a checkerboard type fashion, bouncing from side to side, and separated in the middle by the Pictures and Calendar long tiles.

The tile system only becomes an annoyance when the developer completely screws up the tile for that app. In essence, making it super ugly where even though its a good applications, I can't stand to have pinned to the homescreen.
Colours... mix and matching really makes the Metro theme shine. You can have soo much contrast between two tiles, and it still looks beautiful.

Gonna put my voice in with the crowed that prefers the official/system tiles to match the theme and the third party ones to have their own personality. Everything sort of bleeds together if you have all of the tiles the same colour, and you have to really pay attention to the logo/title on the tile to recognise it. Having more unique tiles lets you glance at it and go "yep that's what I want" without paying much attention, which is quicker and more convenient to me.

Personally, I don't mind the different colored tiles. I just would like to see MS do 1/2 and 3/4 tiles to go along with the normal and double sized tiles.

....I find this thread quite interesting. It shows that you can well personalise your screen, one thing Android and iPhone user claim that this is lacking with WP7....

i like mine shaken, not stirred

I like tiles that show some "personality". IMO that way it easier to find an app than if all of them would basically be the same color.

I want the theme-color.
I cant stand it when my homescreen looks like some chaotic add-page from a paper, thats what I think it looks like when all tiles have different colors and they dont follow the metrostyle on the graphics. Its hideous.
I even wish the Picture and Zune-tiles would flip once in a while or fade in something to show the theme color.
I can accept if the tile has 50/50 theme-color mixed with something else though.
Just make it fit the style, otherwise it wont be on my startscreen, simple as that.
Since we are talking about this I might add that the red ball of hell on the Facebook-tile looks so out of place I cant stand that either.
Make it square and and use the themecolor!!!

[Future Release] Tile Concept

So I was thinking the other day that there is no reason why some tiles couldn't be smaller. It would be cool if you could long hold a tile and have an option com up to split it into a half tile. Other hub like tiles could be further subdivided. I use IE to demonstrate this, but the music up could allow you to pin a favorite artist or two to it. Or the game hub could likewise use 1/2 tile to display game invites, and then two 1/4 tiles to link directly to your two favorite games. What are your thoughts?
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Edit: here is what it would look like in your hand:

+1!
I would love to see this

like this too...

Here's what I've been wanting MS to do, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full width sizes

If only Microsoft would actually come in here and read some of this stuff...

Genius!
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

I realy like it too. Eather I don't understand why there is no option to make smaller icons at the beginig of WP7.

There should be an option when pinning to the home screen which size you want. It would call for more work on the dev's part to add all of the extra icons in their apps that encompass all of the sizes, but WP7 is already easy to work with.

this will be great..... i hope MS will look at this and add this to the mango update...

hmmm, honestly dont really like the split tiles. Just doesnt look as clean and simplistic as the original. I like the interface as it is now, however adding more options or subdivisons(and not separate tiles) within a single tile would be welcome.

hey, they're almost icons, keep going!

PsychoAssasin said:
hmmm, honestly dont really like the split tiles. Just doesnt look as clean and simplistic as the original. I like the interface as it is now, however adding more options or subdivisons(and not separate tiles) within a single tile would be welcome.
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You are probably one of 1000 who don't like this opinion. So if you don't like, just use biger icons. Us who like smaller, than could use smaller.

I really like this layout. It adds diversity to the screen and also allows you to see more at the first glimpse. I would really welcome this, but I am pretty confident we'll never see this

I would love this layout as an option! Make it so that to add it you would need to go into the app settings, then people wouldnt complain about it being mandatory.
Edit- Imagine this concept with a facebook app, you could have different parts of the tile split into different functions, like one could be facebook chat with notifications, just a straight notifications one and then another with new messages. So, each would have seperate notifications and tapping it would take you directly to it.

brilliant!

The concept is nice, but I like the original tiles any smaller and it will look like icons

I would bet the OP used to have a HD2 because this reminds me of a great mod everyone was using to be able to accomodate more icons to the homescreen. While it was awesome for Winmo 6.5 I don't really like it for WP7 because the tiles are not just icons, they're supposed to display information.
I've just read the comments over this concept at WPCentral and this is what I had to say...
I think the people who see an issue with the tiles don't actually see where the real issue is. The real issue is some(most) tiles only act as counters and are the ones wasting space. However we have to keep them on the start screen because there isn't a notification center.
I said that before, Windows Phone needs to go the Meego route and have a 3rd page that's just for notifications (and maybe one more useful feature like data/wifi toggles as someone suggested).
Example: I currently have Accuweather and AlphaJax pinned to my start screen. Accuweather is an informative tile that shows useful information at a glance. AlphaJax doesn't do anything. It just shows a number that tells me it's my turn to play, it's just a counter. AlphaJax could be on my notification page and moved away from my start screen in favour of a more informative app like prime tv.
Think about it, how many of your "live" tiles are just counters?
Also I'm not too keen on the "they could still make it and make it optional". It's not like it would require a snap of the fingers, there's still lots of work to be done (including changes to the core UI) for something people might use. All these resources would be better used in creating something like a notification page.

Looks too cluttered, smaller icons will be harder to hit on smaller screens, more frustration which will be blamed on "Windows Mobile".

I definitely like this idea of adjusting the live tile size, more options and choice is always good. That coupled with adding extra pages to help categorize your apps would make the UI that much better for notifications and wifi/bt/etc toggles or even just a page with live tiles dedicated to news or games or whatever. I would have thought that MS who prioritize efficiency would give us the option of additional pages so we don't have to endlessly and skillfully scroll down our home screen to find what we want 'quickly'

Love it. Ability to fit a few more things on the home screen without scrolling would be awesome.

Notification Concept for Windows Phone.. what do you guys think

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Notification center is one place for all new events and updates, like call, mails, messages, social networks updates such as Facebook and Twitter and others.
Full info Notification center concept for Windows Phone

Yeah I like it a lot.

Looks good to me too.

Looks awesome!!! Killer idea.

Looks great

thanks guys ..
You guys might also like some of the other concepts we have done in the past
Skype , Paypal
Our entire Concept series for Windows Phone

It looks nice, but is too busy for my taste.

Don't like the sense-esque weather or how busy it is as it'd muck up the UI but I like the concept, just too busy for metro.

Yup, a lot of these concepts don't take into account the amount of work the WP7 design team has put in to making the Metro UI uncluttered, simple and yet so stylish..
too busy and would look very out of place with the clean styling of the Metro UI

Looks like Android to me...

I love it - looks great and functional too.
Yes Metro UI is uncluttered, but unfortunately that means lists of white text on a black background...again and again. It's easy to use but boring to look at - reminds me of an old DOS terminal!

the0ne said:
Notification center is one place for all new events and updates, like call, mails, messages, social networks updates such as Facebook and Twitter and others.
Full info Notification center concept for Windows Phone
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Did you seriously just copy "Notification Center" from iOS 5 right down to the name?
In any case, it looks good. But I'm not sure Microsoft wants to go the down-swipe route. Maybe swipe right to a pane to the left of the start screen?
Or even an extra button on the start screen to go to a Notification Hub. The App list has Search, the Home Screen can have the notification button with a number inside the bubble. I think taht would be elegant and the most unintrusive way to add it in.
In the Hub you can have Notifications and Reminders, however if you have to go to the Notification Hub to get reminders you're already somewhat failed there The OS supports Tasks and To-Dos with half-screen notifications/reminders. There's no need for that pane, IMO.
I am sort of pissed that Microsoft didn't make toasts a rolling 3D box like Apple did in iOS, though... They really need to add a bit more 3D to the OS. It's way way too flat IMO. Almost painstakingly so.
Your Skype thing bought an issue to mind. Why doesn't the message hub in Mango have a graphic or text to tell you your online status? After all, the phone does not log you on automatically when you [re]boot it up.
The music playback controls there are thoroughly unnecessary since they're easily accessible by just pressing a volume key. Waste of space.
I actually think the bubble (Notifications for Start, Search for App list in same spot) would be a better solution than a gesture. Some apps take over that top area and I'm not sure how the phone will handle it when you have UI elements up there that need to be tapped or dragged.

Looks like Android not Windows Phone!

Way to busy, Metro is an elegant yet minimalist UI. This concept looks like a breed between Android and Windows Mobile. With Nokia now contributing to the actual OS I believe the 3rd page concept found on Meego will/should make the jump (minus twitter and facebook since they're already in the People hub).
---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:09 AM ----------
the0ne said:
thanks guys ..
You guys might also like some of the other concepts we have done in the past
Skype , Paypal
Our entire Concept series for Windows Phone
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Click to collapse
I much prefer your other concepts

I like the idea of a swipe down for a metro list of recent notifications though...that's a priceless idea and seems to flow properly within the windows 8 ecosystem

I think you are missing the point.
Ignore the background and additional applications etc. The notifications themselves look great and an idea I was thinking about.
If you don't code this up, I will

domineus said:
I like the idea of a swipe down for a metro list of recent notifications though...that's a priceless idea and seems to flow properly within the windows 8 ecosystem
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very wrong imo. A swipe down where? Lock screen? That's not very convenient, home screen? We swipe up and down to navigate the menu. The most viable option is a third table.

z33dev33l said:
very wrong imo. A swipe down where? Lock screen? That's not very convenient, home screen? We swipe up and down to navigate the menu. The most viable option is a third table.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...
it's already in the os
swipe down you get your battery indicator and time...
same method of swiping but instead getting notifications...

Purple11 said:
Looks like Android to me...
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It does....
Nice concept, it's just not Windows Phone though...

go for it
@Peew971 : I didn't create it , one of our designers ( Yanko ) worked on the design

The next version of Ziggy is going to make the old one look like dirt

http://www.wpcentral.com/ask-ziggy-temporarily-busted-major-overhaul-horizon-exclusive-first-pics
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look really good then.
Time to do some Apple Siri-Comparing!

Just Downloaded v1 from the marketplace out of curiosity. Definately needs some help with accuracy lol

I like positive news and this is positive, WP needs to keep up the good work and listen to what we want and need, if they do then I can see them reaching their goals in 2015 but if the don't then, well... it's not good and you all know how I feel about that so I'll spare you my complaining.

The new update looks awesome..cant wait for it..And the best part is that it is totally free!

Symondo said:
Just Downloaded v1 from the marketplace out of curiosity. Definately needs some help with accuracy lol
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Agreed, I read some where that the dev of this app has actually been trying to get Ziggy to do more but you know MS and their damned restricted API's. I'n my opinion they need to hire this guy.

The screenshots look cool. I may dl it again.
I tried it before, and 90% of the time the response was just "would you like to do a websearch for that" or whatever it says.
I could save myself time and a couple steps by just voice-searching Bing.

sure haven't said:
The screenshots look cool. I may dl it again.
I tried it before, and 90% of the time the response was just "would you like to do a websearch for that" or whatever it says.
I could save myself time and a couple steps by just voice-searching Bing.
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I know I hardly use it my self, I'll use it from time to time to entertain my self for a few laughs but it's great to see it evolve. You have to give it to the dev of the app; he has to improve it even with the MS restrictions.

I really don't like it when developers use a panorama design and put "Settings" as a screen to swipe to. They really should put the settings in the app bar. If he only wants the microphone icon in the app bar then add the settings to the "more" 2 dots part.
Otherwise I'm looking forward to this update!

sayonical said:
I really don't like it when developers use a panorama design and put "Settings" as a screen to swipe to. They really should put the settings in the app bar. If he only wants the microphone icon in the app bar then add the settings to the "more" 2 dots part.
Otherwise I'm looking forward to this update!
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LOL, I think he did it that way because people asked him to make it more metrofied.

Much better design and definitely if Microsoft know what they doing, they would hire this dude. These are people that are ready to dedicate their full time to Windows Phone.

sinister1 said:
LOL, I think he did it that way because people asked him to make it more metrofied.
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Click to collapse
Then he should look closely at how MS design their panorama apps. Settings are always in the app bar in People hub, messaging, xbox live hub, calender etc
Generally when a user swipes along a panoramic screen its to see more content. Settings isn't more content. Most users don't even fiddle with it each time they launch the app unless they need to change something, so therefore dedicating an entire panoramic screen to it is bad design and not metro.
That is my opinion

sayonical said:
Then he should look closely at how MS design their panorama apps. Settings are always in the app bar in People hub, messaging, xbox live hub, calender etc
Generally when a user swipes along a panoramic screen its to see more content. Settings isn't more content. Most users don't even fiddle with it each time they launch the app unless they need to change something, so therefore dedicating an entire panoramic screen to it is bad design and not metro.
That is my opinion
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Click to collapse
+1
It's the case with so many major app developers. It's the mindset from other OSes. That brings us to badly developed apps argument. There is always an app for what we need, if not official, a client - majority of the times. But most apps are so horribly metrofied that it's mortifying. Making apps esp free ones, is an amazing task! But then full hearted approach to match the metro concept will streamline an user's experience and they will love your app more. Else someone too choosy about how his phone looks might find distasteful breaks in his streamline experience. Most WP users gotta be choosy with UI, why else would you love this new UI so much!?
May be people here won't agree, but this is what I generally consider as a factor whether any particular app will stay on my WP. In my WM and Android days, that wasn't an issue because OS UI was ugly anyway. But can't let the UI experience be ruined just because I want some functionality of an app that I might only use once a week or once a month!

Oh this looks so much better. I'm not a big fan of how it looks right now.
I do agree with previous comments about settings. A whole screen to swipe to is uneccessary. Put it in the bar.

I can agree Ziggy looks dirty. I hope developer ask some designers to help him make ui better.

Function over finesse. It's more important to get the core working well, than to tweak the look and feel.
For the most part the real use is a 1 button deal. Make it listen. Make it stop and process.
The app without a function update was only a cool concept, but not much worked properly. Since it is a 1 person team, I am glad the focus is on getting it to function properly.
Once the guts are working properly, it can be delivered. Then, we will have a great functional app while the user interface tweaks are done. Then we will have a superb app.