I was fortunate enough to win a Dell Inspiron Duo. A little low-powered netbook with the dubious benefit of having a flip-top touch screen. Pretty useless really. So when Windows 8 Developer preview was released I thought it was the perfect match; it was pretty good. In desktop mode I could carry out my work related tasks, in Metro mode use it as a very basic tablet – at that time there were next to zero Metro apps. So when Windows 8 Consumer preview was released I eagerly installed it, knowing that the earlier tablet focus will have been redressed by improvements to the desktop variant. I installed it and was initially furious.
Metro aka Windows Tablet?
One you have logged on you are presented with the Metro interface. Now this is where my blood started to boil. Now I like Metro, at least I love it on the phone. I can see the point of it on a tablet. I can just about cope with it on the XBox with Kinect. Where I just do not understand it is for a desktop PC. Let’s face, using Metro with a mouse is a poor experience. Like it or not mice are designed for vertical scrolling, it just doesn’t translate well to Metro. Add to the this that certification for Metro apps includes ‘finger size’ controls and there is nothing I’ve seen so far that has done anything to make me think Metro isn’t simply a tablet UI. So let’s take a look at the desktop.
Windows 8 Desktop, erm
My working life is going to be in the Windows desktop, both for me and some extent my customers too. So I select ‘desktop’ and I’m faced with Windows 7. But wait, no start button. How can I find my apps? Naturally my mouse gravitates to where the Start button should be and I’m sent back to Metro. Hmm. Not what I would consider intuitive. So it looks like a desktop but actually to launch anything I have to go via Metro. That is really clunky. Enough of all this, my Dell has two finger gestures and it’s not working so before I go on I must install a driver. Now, first to check Control Panel to see if it has already been installed but switched off. Ok Start->Control Panel. Argh, no Start. Hmm. After some flapping around I discover the app search mechanism. Yes, after 20 years of the UI I’m back to a glorified DOS UI but with a pretty intellisense style search. Ok, now this doesn’t really bother me as I often just use Start->[Type in Name of App] in Windows 7, so I can’t really throw any mud here.
After a while, with plentiful use of the Windows key, I manage to get my Dell running almost correctly (orientation sensor isn’t working). However, now when I open Metro I’m faced with a shotgun splattered UI.
So what’s wrong with that? Here’s what I think.
What is Metro?
To explain why I got upset about this release you need to understand that I do like Metro, at least what I believe Metro to be. The principals behind it are, to be an easy way to see the information you need…just like the signs at the Metro (although the Metro Paris isn’t exactly a primary example of this idea). So when I open my Windows Phone I get pretty much all the important information. If I wait a second or two the information changes to show other contextual information, great. So how is it that different on Windows 8? Noise. When you’re navigating a public area, such as an airport, metro station, etc, the signs showing you the route through are clear. When I open my Windows Phone the information I want is there, clearly separated Why, because the real-estate only allows for a small number of ‘signs’ or in this case ‘tiles’. When I open MetroTablet I get far more tiles. If I start to scroll I get more tiles, in fact anything I touch ends up as tiles (see previous screenshot). IT’S NOISY. Stop shouting at me Metro. It’s akin to walking into the tube station and having every tube route sign added to the walls with no favouring of the routes from that station. You’ve lost the reader, and therefore the whole point. So I’ve established I’m angry at Metro, but how did we get here. Here is my guess…
Personas vs. Agile vs. Apple
Microsoft have been faced with an obvious problem of losing market share in the average home. Apple have had great success by building on their previous knowledge. IMO Apple owned the graphic design/publishing market even though their OS was obviously technically laughable with little to no multitasking. But still people used it, why? It’s my view that it was because people only really used one app at a time. There was little need for windows everywhere. I think Apple took that experience into OSX. Now with a proper grown up OS the user is still only shown about 5 apps in the in-your-face dock. The 5 apps they’re likely to use. Even though we have multitasking Apple are ‘restricting’ us to 5 apps. It works, and it works well. I hate it. I have apps crawling out the wood work, the dock is next to useless to me and the app explorer/manager is just painful. But I know I’m in the minority so why should Apple care?
Obviously Apple have made a great deal of money from iOS and Microsoft want to claw that back and originally I liked Microsoft’s approach, let’s have a unified OS rather that WinPhoneTablet. As much as I enjoy the iPad (or did before the terrible update of iOS5) I can’t do anything really useful with it. The idea of switching between tablet and desktop is very appealing to me.
So faced with these ‘facts’ it would seem the solution of Windows 8 is a good one, Metro presents the 5 apps you need and desktop lets you do your grey suit work. Great. However…
Microsoft use persona’s and they use agile techniques. Nothing wrong with that, but I think it’s gone wrong for MS. When Windows Phone 7 was released Microsoft pushed their main persona into the public. The 20-30 something who works all day in an office and wants to keep up with their social world but doesn’t have the time to spare opening lots of apps…they’ve got people to meet. That was the only persona, after-all you should deliver small chunks of value so using one persona is a way to do that right? Immediately I thought that was a secondary persona. I became more convinced of this when a Microsoft employee stated that, “young people didn’t buy phones…they don’t have the money to spend on them”. If you ever needed proof MS didn’t get the phone market that was it. However, the basic design idea of Metro holds true regardless of the persona, so the only negative impact of the phone’s persona was the worlds worst marketing campaign. But what has this got to do with Windows 8?
I believe the team have looked at these issues and created the persona of the home user who will have a tablet (a new tablet, you should try Windows 8 on a tablet without a Windows button – tough), and will occasionally use one of those ‘legacy’ applications. Otherwise they’ll use only the ‘5 apps’ they see at the start screen. That’s it, no other possible personas. Therefore we have an OS that is only practical for users that; a) have a new tablet b) only use a few apps. So what about me with my huge monitor (I wish), my vast number of apps all open and viewed at the same time, my tablet without a dedicated Windows button and no ability to select the lower left point? What about ME?
So I hate Windows 8?
After I climbed down from my high horse I decided to write this blog entry. I’ve written it because I realised that I am probably not your typical user. I’ve grown up with computers and have a lot of assumptions built in, e.g. “you scroll up and down, horizontal scrolling is horrible”, “I need a tree UI to find my apps”, etc. So considering the mass market out there Windows 8 doesn’t look so bad. Sure, as a friend rightly pointed out it, it does need cues to help the user find all the “weird” hot points that make it easier to use but perhaps a new user, or an soon-to-be-ex-Apple user (yeah ok), will find it intuitive?
I have my doubts about Windows 8, I can see the goal but I just hope someone dusts off the desktop persona otherwise I fear Windows will be consigned to the leisure market for ever more. I hope ‘consumer preview’ implies there is a ‘business/pro preview’ in the wings…I hope.
So to sum up, I actually like much of Windows 8; the prospect of running Windows 7 on low powered devices is great. I just hope someone takes a long look at the Metro/desktop integration for pro users.
[edit] looks like I’m not the only one http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/03/andrew_does_windows8/
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I don’t like windows 8 very much I think windows 8 is good for the tablets more than desktops or laptops.
Well, MS should know something is wrong when I have been a MS supporter for a long time, a Windows mobile user since the early 2000 but now, I am nearly ready to call it quits with their products..
MS has a problem since I realized I could have a very satisfying and intuitive ICS Android experience, that I could leverage with a new tablet and just came to the conclusion that I want my OS to be a backbencher while I now use all those fancy cloud applications I learned to be productive with. Windows 8 not only failed to impressme, it left me disgusted to see it so much in my face. It’s like someone standing in front of you while you are trying to watch something else.
Win 8 is now that interface I don’t want to watch and that is standing between me and what I want to do.
To see if I was the culprit of this and just a not understanding user, I started googling “I hate Windows 8” and found that I am just one of many disgruntled users.
Now, all that I want is to make sure I don’t update any of 5 other win 7 computers I have and just keep this Win 8 installation to remind me that in life, bad choices abound and trying to embrace too much without doing anything right is never the right thing. MS may have just embraced too much once more….
I’m a fan of metro, and I’ve been unimpressed with Android. However I’ve not used an Android tablet so I can’t comment on that. So I’m pretty happy with Metro on a tablet. I’m pretty happy that my win8 tablet can run all my windows apps, even if they’re not ‘touch aware’, esp since I have a tablet/netbook hybrid. It’s a desktop and tablet device with a desktop and tablet os, “brilliant”. My problem with win8 is that it’s all about the tablet. You HAVE to use the tablet UI when you’re in desktop mode. That’s the problem for me. Win8 Metro is just frustrating to use with a mouse.
I too am a longtime Windows user/supporter. I currently have Windows Vista on my PC (just ended up lucky that way in the upgrade cycle) and even then I’m not a Vista hater, in fact I think most of the Vista hate is unfounded. However, with the advent of a Metro-centric PC experience I’m now looking for the first time ever at Linux as a possible upgrade.
You make the valid point that Metro is the person blocking your view and trying to get your attention while you have something else completely in mind that you want to focus on. Microsoft wants Metro to be your go-to place, but I’d say most advanced users are going to be trying to figure out just how to bypass it the fastest to get the real work done. Not to mention I think Metro is ugly and the solid color scheme is reminiscent of iOS in 2007, with sqares on a black background (I know desktop Metro is different but it harkens to that feel as well).
When I boot up my computer I’m greeted with a desktop that I like to keep pretty clear of clutter but with quick links and an easy path to the apps I use most, but with the ones I don’t use within reach so I don’t have to go looking and digging every time I need to do work or change settings.
Perhaps I’m just being picky, but as an intermediate to advanced user I’m not impressed with a dumbed down Windows experience where things seem to have gotten tucked even more out of the way, but this time with an unhelpful color blob that you have to navigate by to get where you want to go.
Perhaps I’ve been ruined by Android but I’d prefer to not have Metro on a tablet either. I’m not a huge Apple fan but I think their UI is good, however, I would choose the feedom and functionality of Android in a tablet over Apple’s “walled garden” of goodness. And I’d rather have an OS I’ve optimized to get right to what I need when I need it over a Metro interface that tells me how I should be optimized to reach what they think I want and need. Customization wins out for me.
Vista: The difference between Vista and Win7 is subtle. For me those subtle changes, especially around ordering of services during starup, makes the experience feel a lot less bloated, but this isn’t really about Vista is it 🙂
Metro: I’ve stated that I like Metro, I can see why people don’t. The problem I have is two fold; 1) there are many personas of Window’s users and Microsoft have gone for the money which will upset many supporters – such as yourself. 2) Win8, IMO, has lost sight of Metro. If you are catching a train you want clear indicators, too many signs and it has the opposite effect – I fear Win8 Metro is too many signs, especially because of the auto-assigning of tiles – perhaps it will be configurable
Android/iOS: I tend to generalise “The opposition” by suggesting they fit specific scenarios. Android has a more, power user/teaker user base + custom phone – interesting in that the often means users with a phone size they want but baffled by low battery, strange techie messages, etc (but there is no viable option). iOS is for people that just want to get on with their limited, but whole, requirements. Generally iOS is ok at that. What I like about the potential of Win8 to bridge those gaps, however I fear that the Android-esq customistion will be lost as the “legacy” part slowly declines so we’ll end up with a nicer (IMO) version of iOS…perhaps not a bad thing. But again it will alienate many personas but if they get their Enterprise story correct perhaps it will all be fine?