Building the better app
Official partnership with Windows has its advantages, one of which was being in the first wave of tech companies to experience and work with Windows 8. The new OS has been in development for three years, and released various versions to the public across 2012, but Vega has been holding the final Enterprise version for long enough to have developed and submitted a new app to be considered for headlining status when Microsoft releases Windows 8 this October to showcase the new Windows Store, their outlet for distribution of apps compatible to the new system.
Building an app for a new and virtually unknown system was a call to action, an opportunity to stand on the front lines when Microsoft stepped into the mobile application market against the juggernaut Apple App Store and Google Play.
We built a team of architects and developers to design an app for new Windows store. The deadline was the end of September, and the challenges were numerous.
Boban, Dragan, Dejan, and Ivan locked themselves away with Microsoft's suggested guide and assigned themselves to get to the front line, to get the job done, because not only is Microsoft completely updating the user interface with Windows 8, and opening an app store, it is going to start selling its own Surface tablet, and expand its presence in the mobile phone OS market. Building an app to headline at the launch of this new wave in tech would provide exposure to Vega like nothing else, and it was up to them.
The inventors of new apps face more and more complex challenges as the demand for cross-platform operational compatibility increases. And with Windows 8 being the newest frontier, the team could not rely upon the tried and true method of surfing the blogosphere for references or threads regarding solutions or tips that other designers had posted for the international community.
Adaptation is the name of the game, though. Nobody on the team came to Vega because they were looking for a desk job, just to hack out code and collect a paycheck. They're here because being in a think tank and standing on deadlines under heavy fire is part of the job description. And of course they made the deadline, because they're the best in the business, and Vega always delivers.
