[The Next Web] Microsoft Project Siena: An app for anyone to create Windows 8.1 apps, no coding required

Microsoft has launched a new app called Project Siena to help non-programmers create “powerful” apps for Windows 8.1.

As SurfaceGeeks note (via The Verge), this is certainly one way of increasing the app-count in the Windows Store, with anyone able to put their ideas into practice without knowing how to code – including “business experts, business analysts, consultants and other app imagineers,” as Microsoft puts it.

It remains a beta product for now, but the general concept will be familiar to anyone who’s used one of the myriad of similar tools available for other platforms, including iOS, Android and Microsoft’s very own Windows Phone App Studio. While there will naturally be some restrictions as to how rich and deep the final product will be, it will work well for things like catalogs and asset-based resources that contain photos, videos and maps. Visual, in other words.

Siena-based apps are HTML5 and JavaScript.

➤ Microsoft Project Siena | Windows Store