2 full days, come to either, 9am - 5pm both days, note that venue changes each day

We are holding a free 2 day event for developers and designers to level up their skills with help from industry experts Shane Morris and Nick Randolph. The event will cater to new comers and veterans alike, covering both designing and developing for Windows Phone. With fantastic new devices such as the Nokia Lumia 1020, and growing market share globally, it's time to level up your modern design skills.

Day 1 - Design - 9am - 5pm

Microsoft, Melbourne, Level 5, 4 Freshwater Pl Southbank

Shane Morris - Automatic Studio

The highest rated applications in the Windows Phone store don’t just offer useful features and great performance - the best applications share one other important attribute - they all look and behave like they 'belong'. They leverage the Windows Phone user experience guidelines and integrate with the native features of the phone in ways that make them feel like they could have been shipped as built-in features, while still having their own unique identities.

Effective use of signature Windows Phone elements like panoramas, app bars and live tiles are essential to designing a successful application, but they aren't all you need to think about. In this one day session UX designer Shane Morris won't just take you through the 'rules' for Windows Phone design. You will also focus on the 5 underlying principles which underpin Windows Phone design and which you can use as the starting point for generating your own application design. Along the way you will learn a rational, repeatable user-centred process for designing your application – which does not require you to be an artist!

Topics covered include:

• Design inspiration and principles
• Navigation
• Panoramas, Pivots and Pages
• Correct use of the Back button
• App bars and in-page controls
• Page layout
• Typography
• Choosing and designing application tiles and live tiles
• Branding, and
• Animation

Along the way Shane will draw on examples and case studies from the applications he has designed for organisations like Ticketek, NAB, Qantas, Lonely Planet and more.

Day 2 - Development - 9am - 5pm

Karstens, 118 Queen St Melbourne

Nick Randolph - Built To Roam

Windows Phone isn't just another mobile platform full of applications that only do one thing. From designing your application in line with the Windows Phone guidelines, through to interacting with the hardware sensors, great Windows Phone applications look to integrate and collaborate wherever possible. The developer training day will start with an overview of the tools that are available to assist you design, build and test your application. During the day we'll cover off key platform features that you should be aware of and can take advantage of in your applications.

These include:

• Windows Phone and Toolkit Controls (Panorama, Pivot, LongListSelector, ListPicker)
• Tiles, Toasts and Push Notification
• Camera and Imaging APIs (including the Nokia Imaging SDK)
• Mapping and Location
• Sqlite
• Windows Azure Mobile Services
• App-to-App Communications (File and Protocol Associations)
• Voice
• Wallet and In-app purchasing