!JeOpArDy was my last canvas app game, so it's been a while. Working on another canvas app, I wanted to give "Nerdle" a try. Important to note though, I'm only replicating maybe 80% of the game. With this in mind, puzzles are hardcoded and not loaded from an external source. Also, keeping this post from … Continue reading Power Apps: Build a Game… !NeRdlE!
Power App Designs
Power Apps: Canvas App Styles | Inline vs Internal vs External
Power App canvas apps are easily personalized, but at the moment, not as easily styled as websites. Web developers can share and reuse their stylesheets across projects. Canvas apps, not so much. Even so, there are some similarities with styling scopes. There are three approaches to personalizing and branding canvas apps... Approach #1: Inline Every … Continue reading Power Apps: Canvas App Styles | Inline vs Internal vs External
Power Apps: Deconstructing… LinkedIn
Power App canvas apps are "low-code" business apps. And because they're low-code, app makers don't need iOS or Android app development experience. Even so, creating any app from scratch can feel daunting. Why? Because makers often look to other published apps for inspiration. Inherently, this isn't bad, but keep in mind that these apps are … Continue reading Power Apps: Deconstructing… LinkedIn
Power Apps: Design | Nested Galleries
Power App canvas apps are extremely customizable. As makers build their business apps, they can connect to data from dozens of sources and output data records dynamically. An easy way to list these records, bind the data source to a gallery control: "A control that contains other controls and shows a set of data… A … Continue reading Power Apps: Design | Nested Galleries
Power Apps: Design | Hover Menu
Power App canvas app makers often need to build menus for their apps. To create a hover menu, without using a component, just add the necessary menu controls, then select and group them. Grouped elements have properties similar to every other screen control: Figure 1 - Power Apps screen with several controls. Figure 2 - … Continue reading Power Apps: Design | Hover Menu
Power Apps: Build a Game… !JeOpArDy
The Power Apps platform is great for building business solutions. Even so, does it have to be all for work? Luckily, it doesn't. Just as business apps are created, developers could build simple games, too. For instance, designing a "Jeopardy"-esque game... Getting started, this example uses Microsoft Excel as it's data source. The Excel file … Continue reading Power Apps: Build a Game… !JeOpArDy
Power Apps: Recreating… Twitter
At last, closing out the Power App recreation series. Kicking things off, the first app mocked up Instagram. Nothing fancy, but the app used two galleries populated from two Excel data sources. The second app roughly recreated Netflix and again, used two galleries and two Excel data sources. However, app #2 used the Filter() function … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Twitter
Power Apps: Recreating… OneDrive Photos
As the series continues, there is a common element among the apps. At their core, many popular apps have gallery experiences. Even the OneDrive app could be created using a vertical gallery for its photo grid... Setting the app foundation, count the total number of images in the data source. The app displays three images … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… OneDrive Photos
Power Apps: Recreating… Office App
User-centered design should really be at the core of all app development. Functionality is essential, but a poorly designed interface can sink any app. With this in mind, more time should be invested in designing Power Apps... Next in the series, recreating the Office App with SharePoint Online as a data source: Figure 1 - … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Office App
Power Apps: Recreating… Netflix
Second entry of this series, a rough mock-up for another Power App. The first recreation was an Intagram-esque app created using two galleries. Likely an oversimplification, but Netflix is also two galleries at its core; although the galleries are used differently. For this Power App, the horizontal gallery is nested within the vertical gallery: Figure … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Netflix
Power Apps: Recreating… Instagram
Software Engineering is more than writing efficient and reusable code. An underutilized discipline of the field is user-centered design. This area of Software Engineering focuses more on building beautiful and intuitive interfaces. Unfortunately, I don't often see Power Apps with clear investments into their UIs. Though, with a bit of effort, Power Apps could easily … Continue reading Power Apps: Recreating… Instagram