Uno has announced Uno Platform Studio, a suite of productivity tools featuring Hot Design, which they describe as a next-generation Visual Designer for .NET cross-platform apps.

The Uno Platform is an open-source platform for building single codebase native mobile, web, desktop and embedded apps with .NET.

The new tool can be used through all the parts of the development lifecycle, from design handoff to ongoing changes and building the app. Uno says it is an industry-first Visual Designer for cross-platform .NET Applications.

The new tool aims to offer a better alternative to existing application editors and preview tools, which the company says often allow for only basic visual changes and require restarting of the app every time you make any changes.

Users will be able to take a running app and have it made available for editing in the designer element of any IDE. A Hot Reload facility aims to reliably update any code in your app, with an app indicator providing confirmation your changes were applied. Platform Studio eliminates the manual design handoff process by generating what the company says is ready-to-use well-structured/clean XAML or C# Markup code from a single click.

The studio works with Visual Studio, VS Code or JetBrains Rider on all operating systems, and can be used to develop applications with rich UI on every platform that .NET supports.

Adjustments made in the Designer updates the XAML code in real time, and any code changes are reflected in UI. The company says this feature is especially valuable when working on complex UIs, as it shortens the development cycle and streamlines the dev process.

The tool has full support for user-created and third-party UI components. It also lets developers work directly with actual data sources within the running app rather than having to create mocked-up data, though that is also supported too

Hot Design isn't dependent on the choice of state management pattern, so it will work with both MVVM and MVUX. It can also be used to design and adjust UI directly on a remote device.

The new product has received interest from industry watchers. Miguel De Icaza, originator of Xamarin,  said on X:

"This is very different take on UI designers. Rather than using a designer to generate your app, the designer is built into the app, and you tune it visually over the real data during development. And you don't need a designer integrated into the IDE to design your app. Amazing"

Uno Platform Studio is available now in early beta via a waitlist.

More Information

Uno Website

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