Beachy – Runner up Windows Phone 7 application at Bizspark camp
The Windows Phone 7 camp
I spent the last 3 days at the “Windows Phone 7 applications camp” run by Microsoft Bizspark Australia http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bizspark_au/archive/2010/05/26/upcoming-bizspark-camps-in-sydney-amp-melbourne-win-7-amp-phone-7.aspx. It was a great event and was run well by the organisers.
On Friday David Glover and Nick Randolph helped everyone get the tools installed on their own laptops, then let everybody run through the Windows Phone 7 training kit. Saturday & Sunday were spent with the participants building concept applications that utilise Windows Phone 7.
Finally on Sunday afternoon, the applications were shown to a panel of judges. I was ok with showing my application publically as I wanted to get feedback on the idea, and I was able to record it. Unfortunately the other participants wanted to show their applications privately to the judges so I am unable to comment on what they built and was unable to record their presentations.
Beachy
Beachy is an application that advises Sydney residents if it is safe to swim at their local beaches. I geocoded 43 beaches around the greater Sydney area, I then bring in data from 6 separate XML feeds from the NSW government that report on dangers at the beaches. All of it is then shown on a Bing maps overlay. GPS in the phone allows the application to show the user where they currently are allowing them to see if the beaches around them are safe to go to.
Detailed information about each beach would also be available to the user such as wind speed/direction and wave height. This would allow recreational users such as surfers or people sailing to decide which beach would have the optimal conditions for them.
The presentation
I decided to upload my presentation because I go into detail for the reasoning behind my UI decisions such as button placement and colour schemes. I thought that this might be useful for anyone else trying to make Windows Phone 7 applications. I also left in the feedback from the judges as they had some good advice.
The video is in 1080p so feel free to watch it full screen
[vimeo 12901496]
Beachy - Runner up at Bizspark camp from David Burela on Vimeo.