In this chapter, we investigated a number of techniques that we can use to improve the look of our applications, from simply adding shadows to implementing far more complicated layered visuals. We saw the importance of remaining consistent throughout our application and how to get that professional look.

We then looked at more advanced techniques for making our application stand out from the crowd and saw further examples of how to create a variety of custom controls. We finished with a look at how we can incorporate animations into our everyday controls, in order to bring about a sense of exclusivity to our applications.

In the following chapter, we're going to investigate a number of ways that we can validate the data in our applications. We'll examine the various validation interfaces that are available to us in WPF and work on extending our application framework with a complete validation system using data annotations.