Windows Phone Thoughts: Panoramic Control: Innovative UI at Its Best

Microsoft has done an outstanding job in creating an innovative and easy to use user interface for the Windows Phone 7 platform. One of UI elements that makes the Windows Phone a unique experience is the concept of panoramic controls. Alfred Astort has written up a great article for developers to reference when creating panorama pages on the Windows Phone 7.

"For starters, you should imagine your panorama as being similar to a magazine cover. As such, panoramas allow a user to explore content that highlights what is more relevant for them, and these highlights serve as an entry point to further action. " wrote Mr. Astort in his blog post.

For the uninitiated, the panoramic control or panorama pages are pretty unique and provide you the capability to access a lot of data or navigate through complex multiple page applications more easily than any other UI control that I've seen on a smartphone platform. The above example of a panorama page enables you to visualize the amount of data that can be fit into a single page and the user can easily scroll right or left through the individual panes to access the data that they need.