Former UX Designer for Windows Phone teams up with Nokia DVLUP Design Consultations

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Developers, looking for a way to spruce up your app? Need advice on your creation’s UI? Then you may want to take a look at Toledo Designs who just partnered up with Nokia through their popular DVLUP program.

Why go with Toledo? It’s simple. One of the founders of the company is Arturo Toledo, a former Senior User Experience Designer for Microsoft's Windows Phone Design Studio. The man certainly knows his design theory as he wrote a whole guide on UI design for Windows Phone in a series which we covered back in 2011-2012. He recently wrote an interesting piece on the new look for the Facebook app in response to those who said it wasn't Modern.

He and his partner Alejandro Toledo (UX/Software Architect) have formed their own company, Toledo Design and now you can take advantage of their skillset through Nokia and their DVLUP program.

From their website where they announced the news:

“The basic idea is to help you take your app user interface to the next level and make it awesome! Nokia Design Consultations are dedicated 60 minute in-depth and actionable design and UX reviews directly with you and your team. The session gets recorded so you get to keep the feedback to incorporate into your app.After the 60 minute review, and if you chose to do so, one of our senior designers will take a few hours or a full day to redesign selected screens for your app. We will provide you with high fidelity comps and the source Microsoft Expression Design files. This is the closest to hiring a dedicated design agency to handcraft the UI for your app!If you do not have designers in your team or if you wish to provide industry expert feedback to your design team, Nokia Design Consultations are for you!”

A before and after app redesign

Sounds good to us. If there is one thing Windows Phone users have grown accustomed to, it’s gorgeous looking apps. And while minimalism has its role, it’s not always about making your app look native to the UI as there are avenues of creativity that many developers never pursue.

You can even see some of their ‘before and after’ comparisons above to see just what they are capable of in terms of a redesign. So developers, if you care about your app and its success, give considerable thought to Nokia's Design Consultations.

For more information, head to their website Toledo2

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Executive Editor

Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.

23 Comments
  • Nice crispy designed apps next ?
  • I have to comment on every article
  • Awesome build nokia keep it up
  • Interesting. To leave what I'm sure was a good job at MSFT for a startup focusing on Metro design to me means this gentleman sees big opportunity on the WP platform.  Would suspect he has inside knowledge that none of us do.
  • Great. They can get started on the Windows store.
  • Arturo is the man. Seriously, if you feel like your app is lacking in the design department take advantage of this. 
  • Wow, that redesigned app is beautiful.
  • Has anyone noticed tht Facebook has updated their app for iOS 7?? That makes me laugh at all of those who liked the modernization of the app for windows phone and said it was more than enough. And while I personally believe that it was a modern version of their android app, there are very many ways in which to modernize an old concept. True, not everything has to follow the same exact guidelines, but our new Facebook app still feels out of place in windows and now even more so than before.
  • how does it feel out of place? Because there isnt a giant banner that says FACEBOOK taking up 1/4 of the screen anymore?
    it still completely uses the panorama idea, but in a more full screen view. also you realise facebook somewhat mandates how the facebook app should look/feel/behave across platforms?
  • Yes please. Fix the ugly, dull tiles of Windows Phone 8.
  • Heck? Can I take it that you hate live tiles?
  • I do catch his words that he hated live tiles. "Dull tiles" anyone? No. I'd prefer the live tiles.
  • Yes, please make them static and just sitting there doing nothing at all...
  • I wish every app had an option to control the live tile behaviour. I don't like too many things flipping and moving & definitely prefer a static tile.
  • static tile? then you definitely want switching to Android, which has those static tiles theme on it. I do like the live tiles, which is VERY DIFFERENT and unique compared to Android and iOS.
  • I want control over what is a live-tile and what isn't. I don't want my home screen to be a all-singing-all-dancing mess. I pin a lot of apps purely because there is no way to group them i.e. no folders or categories. i.e. I want all of my music apps together, translation apps, navigation apps, games etc. But that doesn't mean I want a live tile for them. For example, one translation app I use regularly displays a "word of the day" when pinned... well that's great, except I don't want that as it's a useless feature to me. There is no way to turn it off... I can disable the background task, but then it just stays on the same "word of the day". My only option is to either put up with it or unpin it. Other apps needlessly flip to show information I don't care about i.e. top article of the day. I currently have the WPC app to only show the number of new articles - it used to flip and dance about and I hated that, mainly because it would show the same article that I've already read. There's other apps that have a live-tile seemingly just because they can, without any real value. Essentially, I just want an option for the tile: "all singing & dancing", "counter only", or "do nothing". I realise that's up to the app developers, but there should be an OS setting to specify if it's a live-tile or static.
  • go for Android instead. It has the live-tile-like theme. Lame.
  • Great job redesigning that Meal Nirvana app. Problem is that the new design was never used in the app. I remember seeing that new UI long long time ago.
  • Can confirm. Still way ugly :P
  • Do this to WhatsApp. Please.
  • +820!!
  • Where i can find a tool to convert a conventional image or icon (example : awesome face meme) to metro style?
  • I wish that it would be free for DreamSpark members...