Windows apps, the quiet platform

Indie developers talk about the App Store and Google Play constantly. They talk about the Microsoft Store far less. That quiet is part of why we started shipping Windows apps — and part of why we’ve come to like it there.

We now have several apps on Windows: KeyRush, our typing trainer; Resukai, a resume builder; and Sunday Prep, a meal planner. Each one taught us something about what people expect from software on a desktop.

Why the Microsoft Store

We could have distributed installers from our own website. Many Windows developers do. We chose the Store for reasons that are mostly about the user rather than us.

Installing from the Store is predictable. Apps update themselves. Uninstalling actually removes them. There’s a review step before anything reaches a user. For people who’ve been burned by bundled toolbars and installers with pre-ticked boxes, that predictability matters, and we’d rather inherit it than ask people to trust a download from a site they’ve never heard of.

It also fits how we already work. We’re used to stores, listings, screenshots and review queues. The Microsoft Store has its own quirks, but the shape of the work is familiar.

Windows have edges

The first thing a phone developer learns on the desktop is that the window is not yours. People resize it, snap it to half the screen, stretch it across a wide monitor, shrink it to a sliver next to a browser. A layout that looks great at one size can fall apart at another, and on a desktop, every size is a size someone uses.

So we design layouts that reflow rather than scale. A resume editor in a narrow window shows the form; in a wide one, there’s room for more alongside it. A meal plan in a small window reads as a list; with space, it becomes a week you can take in at a glance. Nothing should be cut off, and nothing should be stretched into a single absurdly long line.

The keyboard is expected

On a phone, nobody expects keyboard shortcuts. On a desktop, people reach for them without thinking. Ctrl+Z should undo. Tab should move between fields in a sensible order. Enter should do the obvious thing. Escape should close what just opened.

These aren’t features you advertise. They’re what makes an app feel native rather than ported, and when they’re missing, users notice immediately even if they can’t say what’s wrong. We treat comfortable use without a mouse as part of the definition of done.

Screenshots are wide

Store listings for phone apps are tall, narrow and full of big captions. Desktop listings are wide, and the screenshots have to show a real window doing real work at a readable size. We had to relearn how to compose them: less decoration, more of the actual app, at a resolution where text is legible rather than decorative.

What stayed the same

The principles. Our Windows apps don’t require an account. They don’t show ads and don’t track you. Your data stays on your computer. Sunday Prep, for instance, works entirely offline and has no analytics at all.

If anything, these principles are more welcome on the desktop. People keep their working lives on their computers, and they’re understandably cautious about software that wants to phone home.

Why quiet is good

A less crowded store means a careful, focused app can still be found. It means reviews from people who went looking for a tool, rather than people who tapped an ad. And it means a platform where doing the basics properly — resizing, keyboard, clear listings — still stands out. We’re happy to be there.