XAML Unleashed

Theme Transitions

Using theme transitions is the best way to perform animations on the platforms that support them. They match the standard animations used by the built-in apps and Windows itself. This is a boon for developers who have no business designing animated effects. It’s amazing how making a wrong choice when animating a user interface (for example, the effect is too slow, too garish, or doesn’t quite match user expectations) can negatively impact an app’s perceived quality.

Theme transitions bring more to the table than just consistency, however. They are guaranteed to perform well. They use animations that are all hardware-accelerated, which means they leverage the graphics processing unit (GPU) rather than solely using the central ...