//build 2014 highlights #3: graphics, media, design, and the business of apps

We’re deep into our //build 2014 highlights, and this week we bring together some of the deepest technical sessions—those on graphics and media—with those at the opposite end of the spectrum, namely those related to design and running your apps business.

Let’s start off deep with the six sessions on gaming and DirectX:

• 3-510 – Innovations in High Performance 2D Graphics with DirectX Across Windows and Windows Phone
  
• 2-503 – Building Your First Windows Game with Unity
  
• 3-564 – Direct3D 12 API Preview
  
• 3-594 – DirectX Graphics Development with Visual Studio 2013
  
• 2-662 – Building Games for Windows
  
• 9-004 – Windows Graphics and DirectX 12
  

We also pointed to the session on WebGL last week, which is worth mentioning again in this context: 3-558 – Cutting Edge Graphics in HTML.

The subject of media enjoyed sessions that were few in number, but not at all lacking depth!

• 2-528 – Building Video and Audio Streaming Apps
  
• 3-548 – Sequencers, Synthesizers, and Software, Oh My! Building Great Music Creation Apps for Windows Store
  
• 3-610 – Building End-To-End Video Experiences with Azure Media Services
  
• 2-611 – Azure Media Services: An Around-the-World Tour of Customer Use Cases
  
• 2-652 – Xbox Music API – Music for Every App
  

Now a successful apps business isn’t built on highly specialized developers alone: the greatest graphics technologies in the world don’t mean much if the results aren’t beautiful and engaging! In other words, artists and designers are just as important to creating apps as your developers. So we offered a number of design-focused sessions:

• 2-502 – Practical Design for Windows Developers
  
• 2-660 – It’s a Trap! 3 Remarkably Common UI Traps and How to Avoid Them in Your Designs
  
• 2-539 – Tips and Tricks for Designing a Great Accessibility Experience for Your App
  
• 2-549 – Strategies for World Domination: Design Research Advice for Developers
  
• 2-551 – Creating Personal Experiences: A Panel Discussion
  
• 2-650 – Designing the Ultimate 10' Experience (Xbox)
  
• 9-003 – Experience at the Intersection of Design and Development
  
• 9-009 – Enabling Designers and Developers to Make Great Apps
  

Finally, you can have the coolest app in the world but it won’t get you very far if nobody knows about it, if you can’t keep your users engaged, and if it doesn’t serve your business goals. So at //build 2014 we dedicated some time and energy to helping you with the businessside of building apps, including considerations for the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, monetization, and understanding and engaging your customers:

• 2-504 – Maximizing Revenue for Phone, Tablet and PC Apps in the Windows Store
  
• 2-562 – Windows Store, Dev Center, Monetization and Ads: A Panel Discussion
  
• 2-638 – Understanding Customer Patterns: Instrumenting an App for Telemetry and Analytics
  
• 2-639 – Driving User Engagement With Your Windows Apps
  
• 2-538 – Building Awesome Experiences with Facebook
  
• 2-512 – Windows Phone and Windows: Store and Dev Center
  
• 2-561 – Windows Phone and Windows: Dev Center and App Submission Deep Dive
  
• 2-655 – Promote Your App in Search Results
  
• 2-9664 – Improve App Monetization and Discoverability with Microsoft Advertising
  
• 3-592 – Make Data-Driven, High-Impact Improvements to an Application with Application Insights
  
• 3-596 – Rapidly Detect Application Outages with Application Insights
  
• 9-023 – Visual Studio Online and Application Insights
  

Next week we’ll wrap up with series with Azure, tools, and a number of the other interesting sessions that don’t fit into any category!

The //build Planning Team

P.S. What did you think of the //build 2014 content? What were your favorite sessions? What did you want to see but didn’t? Leave us your feedback in the comments here, and also leave session-specific feedback on the channel9 page for that session. We do read and care about your input!

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