New Preloader for Silverlight

Posted by Corey on February 23, 2009 at 11:29 am.

Tim Heuer announced on his blog three ways to get a free pass for MIX09:

  1. Design a LineRider map,
  2. Visualize data in Silverlight,
  3. or Create a new preloader for Silverlight.

For some time I’ve been wanting a new default preloader for Silverlight.  The loader is the first impression users have of both Silverlight and your application.  Currently the preloader doesn’t have any branding and contains a simple animation and type.  You’ve seen it a thousand times, but in case you haven’t, this is what is the current loader looks like:

image

So, Tim’s contest was the motivation I needed to put my pen to paper (or pixels to screen) and create a new preloader.  Here are a couple ideas:

  • Type – This preloader is solely inspired by a strong use of type.  It is clean, simple, and to the point.  The type being used is Georgia, a web safe typeface,
    image 
  • Branded bar – This preloader focuses on branding.  The bar is very simple, almost too simple.  Out of all three this is my least favorite, however it was the first one created.  Got the juices flowing.
    image
  • Strong bar – The idea behind this loader is the background color of the loader changes based on the background color of your application.
    [THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS.  I want to get something up before the contest is over.]
    image

Links

The application with the three preloaders – http://85turns.com/silverlight/Preloader.html

Tim Heuer’s contest page – http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2009/02/17/write-silverlight-code-and-win-a-pass-to-mix.aspx

Animations

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