
Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview - ssclafani
http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/windows-phone-7-in-depth-preview/
======
macrael
I'm looking forward to seeing how these devices play in real world usage. The
two things that jump out at me immediately.

1\. Most important: On a device with a small screen pixels should be precious.
It worries me that many of the built in apps use a significant and unchanging
amount of the screen to tell you what app you are in. I don't know if it will
really impact usability, maybe there is enough screen real estate to go
around, but it seems wasteful. Perhaps the fact that many of the different
app's UIs (especially the list UI and the list of tiles UI) look very very
similar makes it necessary for you to have a 1/5 screen reminder that you are
in the photos app and not the marketplace?

2\. The multiple message selection is the best example of this, but there are
others: many of the possible interactions with on screen elements are
completely hidden and non-obvious. It would be difficult to discover that you
can manage multiple messages by tapping on the far left hand side of a
message. Contrast this with the iPhone, where you tap edit or whatever, and
the message management UI comes on screen. It reminds me a little of the Anti-
Mac interface (<http://www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html>) in that it is
actually faster (you don't have to go and hit a button that takes up space on
the screen in order to start moving messages around) but at the price of
discoverability. Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed
for expert/informed users?

~~~
wallflower
> Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed for
> expert/informed users?

To use Windows Mobile, you had to deal with ActiveSync. To use ActiveSync, you
have to be fairly tolerant and technically proficient. For example, when
upgrading the OS, you have the responsibility(1) of manually backing up all
your contacts, data, apps.

Contrast this with iTunes (yes, iTunes isn't elegant) - when iOS 4 came out -
it downloaded it and asked if you wanted to upgrade your phone and did so
without losing settings, data, apps. Now, Android supposedly can do OTA
updates. The point here is if WinMo7 requires ActiveSync - it is severely
behind the times.

I'm hoping WinMo7 won't require a user to use ActiveSync and it is all stored
securely in the Windows Live cloud. I usually used lots of colorful adjectives
when dealing with ActiveSync. I had a boss who was convinced to get a WinMo
device by a co-worker; she lasted only about a month (ActiveSync).

(1)
[http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownload.aspx?p_id=59&cat=...](http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownload.aspx?p_id=59&cat=2&dl_id=113)

~~~
desigooner
There is no ActiveSync component to WinPhone7 .. The data (photos, contacts,
documents, settings, etc) is all synced up to cloud via a live.com account
(which even includes the newly announced feature of tracking the phone in case
of loss or theft ala mobileme)

The data can also be synced via the Zune software on a desktop much like
iTunes (but Zune Software is a far better experience in my opinion when it
comes to music and video).

~~~
wallflower
Looks like the Zune was a good investment into consumer friendly software

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pavs
I don't know...

Unless MSFT starts paying phone manufacturers or developing their own
hardware, I don't see this catching up as much as Android or IOS.

There is nothing intuitive about the OS and honestly very underwhelming, I
doubt a consumer who is aware of IOS and Android and have the option of
choosing either one of the three will end up with Windows7.

~~~
endtime
>There is nothing intuitive about the OS

Could you elaborate on this?

~~~
pavs
Sure.

The UI doesn't follow a conventional way how people use UI in any form of
mobile devices. There are differences in IOS, Android, Blackberry and PalmOS
but those differences aren't huge. If you use either of those devices/OS who
should be able to pickup any of the other devices relatively easily. At least
this has been my personal experience with Android, IOS and WebOS. What Windows
Mobile 7 is doing is a fundamentally different way of how you use a mobile
device. You could argue that when IOS was first introduced it was also a
different way of how people uses mobile phones. But it was different in the
sense that it was not confusing, it was very intuitive.

In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest.
There no "Wow" factor. Who thought big blocks of animated tiles taking up huge
screen real-state to be a good idea? I think this is also a good example of
different design philosophy with MSFT and Apple. IOS with its new update
introduced folder with the goal of giving you more screen real-state so that
if you have a lot of apps you don't have to keep sliding and MSFT adds huge
block of tiles (and animated!) that will require you to slide around to find
what you need.

It would have made an interesting showcase for concept design that car
manufacturers always make, but I don't see this being much practical at all.

~~~
endtime
>In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be
honest. There no "Wow" factor.

Is this just your personal preference speaking? I actually was impressed when
I first saw the UI, and the article describes it as useful and functional.

~~~
pavs
Of course its my personal opinion. I don't claim to speak for everyone nor did
I run any public poll. Everything I said in my comment is my own opinion from
my own experience (with other mobile OS), unless otherwise stated.

~~~
endtime
Well, your tone and language were authoritative. Typically, if you aren't
stating a fact you should qualify it with something like "I think".

~~~
pavs
Regardless of my tone. How can this be anything other than my opinion? Isn't
it obvious that it is my opinion?

~~~
endtime
No, that's why I asked. You were stating something in direct contradiction
with the article, and (going purely on prior) you probably haven't actually
_used_ a WP7 phone, so the implication was that you had more than opinion
behind your comment.

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watmough
There's some unfinished, but clear documentation on this page:

<http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7/>

In particular, this PDF gives a great flavor of designing for Windows Phone 7:

<http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252>

Overall, I'm quite impressed. They've aimed at a similar target as Apple did
with the original iPhone. Make it fast, clean and strip away as many features
as you dare.

~~~
hop
That would all be impressive if this was 2006, unfortunately, they are largely
copying the iPhone with just a different graphic design theme. It is
symptomatic of bigger problems in Microsoft's innovation lag.

~~~
aik
Both the IPhone and Android are far from perfect devices. If MS can pull off
an OS as responsive as IOS, be intuitive and simple, I could see many
preferring it or at least considering it over other devices, despite less
functionality. I'm not hugely familiar with the UI, but I do believe there are
significant differences in the UI other than a different overlay. Also, the
fact that they haven't already packed a billion features into the phone is a
BIG plus in my opinion (as long as they have the essentials).

Simplicity and ease-of-use have become key in today's world.

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potatolicious
Interesting - I wonder why the difference exists; Engadget seems to like Win7
(though they are not ecstatic), whereas other sources seem to despise it. I
wonder where the difference lies.

I do hope MS the best - the more competition we have in this sphere the
better, and if the responsiveness/performance of the OS is as good as Engadget
says, there will finally be some hard competition for the iPhone (Android is
great, but I've yet to use one where the UI isn't sluggish, and it really
detracts from the experience).

~~~
ttrashh
I've seen mostly favorable opinions. Gizmodo's preview was about the same as
Engadget.

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barrettcolin
Does the color scheme (of things like the SMS app and menus) remind anyone
else of CGA?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter#Standard...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter#Standard_graphics_modes)

~~~
tfh
Yes. And coincidentally it's the same colors as the engadget color scheme.

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ttrashh
I wonder how the apps are going to play out. XNA is used for the games and
there are plenty of shops out there creating for xbox. It looks like porting
existing XNA games to the phone will be fairly straightforward. I'm expecting
Windows Phone 7 to be a big player in handheld gaming because of XNA/Xbox.

I'm primarily a .Net/Silverlight dev myself so I'm biased but the core
development experience is better than Apple/Google IMHO. They do need to get
off their asses and release more controls (like the pivot) or they aren't
going to have standardized UI across apps.

~~~
rodh257
This is where MS can get the upper hand. If they are open enough with their
app store, they can get developers there as the developer experience is going
to be very good.

Its a chicken and egg thing though, most serious developers won't code for it
until there is a market. Though they will get a fair few .NET developers who
haven't done any Android or Objective-C iPhone stuff.

~~~
trezor
_This is where MS can get the upper hand._

Yes and no. I have to admit I hoped for the ability to install any app you
like (like in former versions of WinMo). Sadly that is no longer the case.

Silverlight/XNA development is fully OK for me, but it seems a tad restricted.
Especially without the ability to run Silverlight in the browser, something
which really, really surprised me when I heard it (at least that's what I got
told on the Windows Phone 7 developer session).

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JulianMorrison
I actually rather like that flat, fluid look. Well done Microsoft.

~~~
andrewdavey
I get the impression it will look and feel even better in person, rather than
on video.

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hop
Is it a surprise to anyone there is nothing awesome or especially compelling
about the Win7 phone?

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clark-kent
The 2D UI is a big risk considering the competition. iPhone 1.0 had a nice 3D
feel to it. The WP7 OS seems very responsive and snappy. But the lack of wow
factor might be because of the 2D UI and monochrome color scheme. It lacks
depth and looks plain.

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
3d is a little overrated. The most recent Ubuntu has gone with a very plain 2d
look for icons and it looks very clean and polished.

~~~
nooneelse
And with "do this for me now" use cases, quite common for phones (such as "did
someone just tell me something relevant in that message I just got" or "what
was that building number again?" while walking down a street thinking about
some larger goal), I find visual clarity all the more appealing. So "plain"
might be just what the use cases call for. Several icons or buttons all made
to be 3-d and pretty with candy-round edges and bright colors, each wanting to
impress me with slickness or compete to stick in my memory better are just
more distraction from that one shape or word my visual cortex is primed by the
task to find.

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emehrkay
I have to actually play with the phone to get a clear understanding of how it
works, but now it seems difficult to tell buttons from regular text

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jteo
I'm kinda enamored of the UI design and all that. The question is: how does
one get one hands on a developer phone?

~~~
jasonlotito
Go to the Windows Phone developer
blog([http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/201...](http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2010/07/12/windows-
phone-developer-tools-beta-released.aspx)) and read all about it. They are
releasing a LOT of information on this stuff.

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saint-loup
Oh god the turquoise-ish hue of the tiles is so ugly. Overall the UI
experience seems neat but this color...

~~~
fname
What makes you think the color can't be changed? There are some other pictures
of it being pink -- which makes me think the color is customizeable by the
user.

~~~
desigooner
there are various color options for fonts/tiles/etc (green, orange, cyan,
pink, red i believe and maybe 1 more) but the background is either black or
white.

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confuzatron
I don't object to minimalism, but I think that in some places this UI is
straying into 8-bit retro brutalism, for want of a better phrase.

But maybe an ultra-stripped-down UI is a good choice for the first iteration,
when you have a lot of stuff to implement.

