What Are The Best UI Frameworks For Windows App Development And How To Add The Wow Factor To Them

The recent version of Microsoft Windows brought a vast of important upgrades and changes which also made a huge impact on the entirety of windows app development. When developing a Windows application, one of the first things to consider is the User Interface. There are a great number of UI frameworks to choose from and each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this webinar, Embarcadero MVP Ian Barker will deep dive into some of the best UI frameworks for Windows and the advantage of using them for application development. He will also share some methods of creating the best User Interface possible.

The challenges of using Windows 11 and the use of its native Win UI3 Library

While the interface of Windows 11 is undeniably appealing, it can also be slightly terrifying for some users. The changes made in Windows 11 are all visually recognizable. One of which is the new centered toolbar. Although the new toolbar is set in the center by default, this can still be configured and placed back on the left side which we are all very familiar with. There is also a new type of Windows behavior known as Windows Snapping that allows you to align your programs up so they are more organized.

Windows comes with its own UI library. The newest generation is the Win UI3 which can be used to build production-ready desktop/Win32 Windows apps. Despite being a native GUI library for Windows, Win UI 3 is notably more complex compared to other UI frameworks. If you are looking for Windows 11-friendly UI frameworks that are more manageable, Delphi’s VCL and FireMonkey (FMX) libraries are surely a perfect fit.

How to add a “WOW” factor to your VCL and FMX Apps

Ian Barker will also discuss how to make the user interface of your VCL or FireMonkey apps more visually appealing. There are cool things you can do with the FireMonkey and with the VCL that can emulate Window’s Fluent UI design system and some of its behaviors. You can also take advantage of third-party suppliers such as the StyleControls VCL which provides the whole set of components allowing you to produce fluent UI interfaces.

Skia4Delphi can also turbo-charge your FireMonkey and VCL apps. Skia4Delphi is an open source 2D graphics library that provides common APIs that work across a variety of hardware and software platforms. We can also recall Barker creating a Star Trek-inspired data dashboard using the Skia4Delphi library. To know more about the best UI frameworks for Windows 11 development, feel free to watch the video below.