

Beautiful Windows 8 concept - dutchbrit
http://dribbble.com/shots/576250-Windows-UI-Concept/attachments/44311

======
georgespencer
Beautiful design, horrible UX. (I know, I know. Suddenly everyone on HN is a
UX designer. But hear me out.)

I count eight distinct types of system font in there, all denoting different
data/functionality. Semiotically there are no signifiers other than the size,
weight and position of the text. It's the closest thing you can get to mystery
meat navigation whilst still providing words.

Look at current incarnations of Windows Explorer that people are familiar
with. There is a very clearly delineated sidebar and "address bar" at the top.
(The web changed the way that people interact with computers. Many people's
first and only experience with computer applications is a web browser, and
unfortunately for many of them it will have been Internet Explorer.)

By removing the lines of demarkation between UI elements, instead of
downgrading the system interface it's been _upgraded_. Everything in the
Windows Explorer pane is on equal footing.

The out of focus windows would get old pretty quickly too. If you're working
on two things side by side your eyes have to switch between one in-focus and
one out-of-focus window. Unless there's a way to dynamically switch focus to
"on" for multiple windows, but then that would get messy quite quickly when
you can't tell whether something is in the background or foreground, active or
inactive. Yuck.

The dock at the bottom looks nice, but the challenge is that you're reliant on
icon designers adhering to very specific standards or the whole thing will
look crazy.

~~~
ricardobeat
I think you're reading too much into your acquired knowledge.

I count two typefaces, at varying sizes & emphasis, according to their
importance. The header hierarchy and sizing is quite nice actually.

Separating lines are not the only way to achieve grouping or separation,
whitespace can be just as (usually more) effective. You can see in the Skype
window that a slightly darker background helps isolate the action area and
give focus to the chat area. The gestalt principles are also in effect here.

My main criticism would be the unnecessary whitespace at the top of the
Explorer and Skype windows, which is also inconsistent with the browser window
behind, and causes the window controls (max/min/close) to be too far from the
edge and consequently less easy targets. In Skype it's even worse since they
are shunned onto the middle of the window. _That_ is an usability nightmare.

I agree with the out-of-focus effect. Maybe the effect could only apply to
overlapping windows, if windows are not touching then both are in focus - that
solves the multi-app workspace case. OSX uses very broad shadows to basically
achieve the same.

~~~
georgespencer
Sorry, not typefaces: it was meant to be typefaces/different spins on
typefaces.

Separating lines aren't the only way, but there isn't enough whitespace here
to be good: it just looks like a regular Windows Explorer window _without_ the
lines; there's not a lot of increased space.

------
qntm
Subtract the nice wallpaper and the problems here become much more obvious.
It's wrong in exactly the same way that the new Gmail UI is wrong. Too much
white space, too little colour, tiny grey abstract buttons without obvious hit
boxes. Screen elements are too similar in colour to tell where one ends and
another begins, white spacing is inconsistent, the scrollbars are too small to
grab and lack up/down buttons, the mouse pointer is almost invisible even when
placed over one of the darkest areas of the screen. It looks like there's an
assumption that third-party programs (Skype) will create icons and front-ends
which use the exact same widgets and icons as the new UI, which most of them
obviously will not. There's a similar assumption about third-party web sites:
what does it look like when you load up Facebook?

How do I launch Office from this interface? What do the tick marks next to
"Homegroup" and "SkyDrive" indicate? What about the 3x3 grid of tiny squares
next to "Max" in the Skype window, which is almost impossible to see? Why is
the "minimise" icon in the top right of all windows still a thin horizontal
bar? Why say "thumbs only" when that's self-evident? What do the red and green
squares in the IE tab bar indicate? How do I see which taskbar icon is
highlighted if my wallpaper is white? How do I see them at all if my wallpaper
is bright orange?

------
axefrog
Really nice, though it begs the question; seeing as you can't meaningfully
affect Windows 8's design without joining Microsoft on the relevant team(s),
why not apply your design skills to the Linux desktop, either Gnome or KDE (I
don't know which is more popular as I'm not really a Linux user). Improving
the Linux GUI's presentation is always a good thing in terms of improving end-
user adoption.

~~~
dutchbrit
Would be a great theme for Ubuntu or something similar, indeed. Ps, I'm not
the designer - just thought of this when I saw the Windows 8 logo concept on
HN

~~~
planckscnst
Elegant Brit is the most similar, and is my favorite set of themes.
<http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=74553>

------
ScottWhigham
This is one of those situations where the UI is gorgeous but the UX is awful
for a certain demographic. And that's nothing against the designer - he
created a UI design, not a UX model, and I think he did a good job on it. From
a UX perspective, however, this is just going to be awful for anyone who is a
power user or who is concerned with productivity. I'm both and, if I was
forced into using something like that for my main work, I'd end up scrolling
and clicking my way to insanity trying to accomplish a task. There's so much
white space that it would drive everyone who already knows computers well
crazy. The low information density - it's just maddening to someone like me
(and probably you as well, since you're on HN).

~~~
weego
I was going to say almost the same thing.

This is what a designer thinks looks good but there is no solution to any
problems here, just more problems that aren't obvious in a single screen-shot.
It's the same problem as when as web developer gets the signed off design and
realises that the whole design falls apart when any number of variable
elements go in because the designer narrowed in on making a flat image look
good rather than exploring every possible outcome of that UI.

The biggest initial problem is exploration and sign-posting (making discovery
of user objectives easier either explicitly or subtly). The is no room for
sign-posting because everything is flat and white.

Also the contrast looks good in a flat image, but would drive people nuts
after a while (and would break most contrast requirements for accessibility).

Don't get me wrong, it's lovely... but no one will ever produce a commercial
OS UI like this.

------
Groxx
Previous discussion (~3 months ago):
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3633526>

edit: nevermind, they're the same person.

edit2: on second viewing... I still hate it. So far towards artsy-minimalism,
so far from function.

------
TamDenholm
I saw this a few months ago (i cant remember where) and i'm sure there were a
whole load more screenshots to go with it.

While i'd love to see this and it is undeniably beautiful, its not really what
i'd call a practical solution. This makes me wonder, is it only beautiful
because its a concept? It only looks so good because its free from practical
restriction, what would it look like if it was made into a real world
application?

This also makes me ask, is the only way to radically change UI to come up with
a completely new from scratch paradigm, and if so, is this why we have metro?

~~~
pigeonfriend
[http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-
ui...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-concept)

~~~
dutchbrit
This is where I saw it first too, thanks for posting the link - couldn't
remember where, just knew it was on Dribbble too. A lot more other screenshots
on The Verge.

------
mariusmg
There's a good reason why the Zune "design" (which this "concept" is copying)
is not used more often. It's a usability nightmare.

~~~
ScottWhigham
My problem is that, since I've never used a Zune, I have no frame of reference
with which to understand your comment. Can you elaborate?

------
pacomerh
Why doesn't Desktop Mode look like this already?. Everyone else seems to
understand that this is the logical look to achieve. Even Git for windows and
Zune have this skin already.

edit: github not git, my bad.

~~~
skrebbel
Nitpicky, I know, but that's Github for Windows. Git is _not_ the same as
Github, folks.

------
gouranga
Looks like ChromeOS Aura:

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Chrome_OS_21.0...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Chrome_OS_21.0.1172_Aura_Dev.png)

I still like my 90's plinth buttons - at least I know which is a button and
which is a piece of headline text.

------
conradfr
Elegant (and I love the volume slider) but :

\- too much screen estate lost on a window title bar ?

\- on date/time as well

\- how does the "invisible" taskbar look when a window is maximized ?

\- vertical scrollbar too narrow ?

And where is my beloved quick-launch bar ? ;)

~~~
chinchang
Title bar has quite a lot empty space but doesn't that contributes to the
whole UI looking clean and beautiful...

------
risratorn
Really stunning visuals, clean and usable. But one thing bothers me and that
is that it will never in reality be as clean, crisp and visually consistent as
in the screenshots.

Take <http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/6697/explorer2.jpg> for example, the
problem there is that in the screenshot it's all aligned and nicely ordered
but i can't help noticing he only displays landscape pictures. Same goes for
several other concept screens.

I don't want to break down his work but it's just that there are many great
concepts that I would love to see come to reality but once they have it isn't
all that like I thought it would be.

UI/UX really is hard :)

------
pigeonfriend
Yawn, this was featured on the verge ages ago
[http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-
ui...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-concept)

~~~
pohl
Your unit of measurement (an "age") must be no more than 9 weeks, since you
used the plural and it has only been 18. Yet it sounds like an impressive
duration. Must be like dog-years.

------
rkudeshi
There are more screenshots from this redesign, including app-specific
screenshots for Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, Media Center & Skype:

[http://theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-
con...](http://theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-concept)

------
tathagata
This is very nice. Also a bit retro? Reminds me about a linux GTK theme I was
using a long time ago.

------
wangweij
Why do the computer and skype windows have so thick title bars?

~~~
modarts
Pretty much a design staple of Metro.

~~~
wangweij
Oh, I thought Metro means a huge title in super thin font, and you can scroll
either vertical or horizontal.

------
eren_bali
Nice concept but it's too similar to Google's design feel

~~~
RutZap
I agree. I looks very much like Android ICS on a different color scheme...
very much like Google's web-apps

------
nelmaven
It looks too bland but definitely better than what Microsoft decided for
Windows 8. The metro UI is just not usable for a normal desktop configuration.

~~~
tfb
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can revert to Windows 7 style for
normal desktop use, as Windows 8 is designed for touch screens. Although I
heard you can't make the reversion permanent; you have to manually revert
after each boot. But that would seem kind of silly to not be able to set the
default style, so my sources could be misinformed.

------
swah
This looks like a website, even resembles new Google theme.

------
uvTwitch
Reminds me a lot of the gorgeous Zune Player UI.

------
signalsignal
Reminds me of LiteStep.

~~~
edkennedy
I used to love Litestep. You know if there was an OS that took the lead in
making customization and skinning accessible, it would be quite a great step
forward. Instead we have third party programs and customizations that don't
quite cut it.

~~~
takluyver
KDE is famous for making everything customisable. But the market for skinning
software isn't that big - most people will never go looking for that feature.
So it's much more important that it looks good by default.

------
shasty
It really is beautiful. If I didnt know it was going to annoy me to no end
like all windows apps do, I would try it. Very good effort.

------
kbronson
In what way is this any beautiful? I just see a blurry, meaningless kind-of-
window where I have no idea what to click or drag or what.

