First NUI Camp Announced
[Cross-Posted from James Chittenden’s Blog]
I’m happy to FINALLY announce the first NUI (Natural User Interface) Camp on April 24th and will be held in Reston Virginia. This is the first of a series of NUI developer & designer events targeted to getting you real, hands-on experience learning and competing with other teams all in a full day of nothing but NUI.
Here’s a quick run-down of what we’ll be doing:
“About Natural User Interface (NUI) Camp
Don’t just learn about the latest Natural User Interface technologies from Microsoft, give ‘em a try with our full day developer/designer hands on competition. From designing to prototyping to building apps, this packed competitive day will team up designers with developers, creating a series of rich internet applications (RIA), all in a day, and all to be judged for a grand prize.
There will be two tracks in this camp - one for those with some experience under their belt (and want to compete), and another for those who want a full walkthrough deep-dive guided tour. Get acquainted with Silverlight or WPF, and come prepared with some multi-touch application ideas - as this will help you get ahead of the competition.“
We’re also bringing in Josh Blake from InfoStrat to kick the day off so all competitors can be familiarized with basic NUI concepts as well as some quick and dirty tips and tricks in using Silverlight or WPF multi-touch. If you don’t know Josh, he blogs at https://nui.joshland.org, and also has a website focusing NUI and his upcoming book on NUI/Win7 Touch with WPF & Silverlight at https://handsonnui.com. Josh is also the primary developer of https://bingmapswpf.codeplex.com
But yeah, some things to consider….if you come prepared, you’ll do much better if you decide to compete. We’ll have two tracks running concurrently so don’t worry if you’re brand new to this stuff and want to just sit back and absorb all things NUI.
Oh, and the best part…we’re providing loaner multi-touch laptop gear (will be divided amongst the teams) so instead of just seeing us demo cool multi-touch UIs, you’ll have real gear to churn out a killer app all in under 4 hours.
There will be a grand prize for first place, so stay tuned more on that later.
Register here: Microsoft Natural User Interface Camp
The Agenda
| Time | Session | Description |
| 8:00 a.m. | Registration | |
| 8:45 a.m. | Competition Overview | Quick overview of how the day’s app dev competition will go – we’ll raffle out teams pairing everyone up into teams of 4 or 5 people, ensuring everyone has both designer and developer resources. |
| 9:00 a.m. | Prep Part I: Intro to NUIsJosh Blake (InfoStrat) | What’s a NUI and why should I care? Learn what the fuss is all about and what Microsoft provides in today’s quickly changing landscapes for building user interfaces. We’ll talk accelerometers, Project Natal, Surface and a slew of other topics you need to consider when designing apps. |
| 10:00 a.m. | Prep Part II: Tools Overview (Blend and Visual Studio)James Chittenden | Whether you are a Visual Studio Developer or a Designer/ Animator, the line between the two inevitably blurs. Modern RIA development requires the ability to pick the right tool for the right job. This kick start presentation will demonstrate ways of using Visual Studio and Blend together in an integrated workflow. |
| 10:50 a.m. | Competition Scenario Explained | We’ll reveal the details of the competition 10 minutes prior to beginning. Teams will be prepped with rules and guidelines. |
| 11:00 a.m. | Go: Start Competition | Coding Competition will last for 5 hours and teams will need to build a RIA app in that amount of time collaborating with both the designer and developer resources on each team. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Stop: All Apps Compete | Teams must publish their WPF or Silverlight apps to the competition shared server by this time. |
| 3:00 p.m. | Prep for apps showcase | Teams will showcase apps that were built in front of audience |
| 4:00 p.m. | Judging: Winning App Showcased | Grand prize winner revealed |
| 4:15 p.m. | Closing and Raffle Drawing |
- James