

Microsoft's Massive Metro Mistake - mtgx
http://pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408142,00.asp

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timmyd
In my mind this seems like FUD. With every new interface change - comes some
sort of "oh my god they don't allow you too ...."

This article totally pops to mind -
<http://www.uie.com/articles/facebook_mini_feed/>

When Facebook introduced the feed - it was like the world had fallen in for
Facebook users. "Quit Facebook", "Worst thing ever" - "I'm quitting facebook"
and so on it went.

Nowdays - no one could envisage using Facebook without it - it's become one of
the most successful design changes of the site and users generally now like it
(sure it still has problems - as does any design for 1 billion users). Indeed
the above article concludes

"In the months since the mini feed was introduced, the users' initial
reactions have since gone the other way. The mini feed is now a critical part
of the site's functionality, allowing users an easy way to keep tabs on their
network."

Windows 8 is no different. "Oh my god it boots to the Metro panels" - who
cares. All Mac's boot the same and the consistent design interface has made
all Mac User's happy. Microsoft is eating humble pie in this regard and
accepts that it needs consistency across all its UI interfaces - unifying it's
offering is the only way to continue forward. Booting to Metro is probably
will make "some people" more likely to go and buy a tablet or phone with Metro
because its now familiar - that's not a "disaster" - thats simply innovation
and consistency in design principles.

What annoys me about the article is comments like

"If Microsoft continues down this path, the strategy will backfire, and PC
owners with a choice will likely skip this version of Windows, much as they
did with ME and Vista."

Yep, except the next version will have Metro even more tightly integrated
because this is an entire interface design change. Everyone hates change,
people like staying with interfaces they are used too. Changing things creates
confusion but sometimes its for the better.

I'm not advocating that this is necessarily for the better, but it's certainly
not a "massive metro mistake" as much as it is a consistent interface change
which is required (I assume) as part of Microsoft long term UI strategy.

~~~
jinushaun
No, it's not people complaining about something new and scary. It's the fact
that the Metro user experience is fundamentally flawed given what we've seen
in the preview releases. The design is bad. It's not a matter of adding new
features, but scrapping the entire paradigm. Using it on a daily basis (with a
mouse and keyboard), you can't help wondering to yourself, what were they
smoking?

As a designer, metro feels like it was designed by bullet points. That there
was this company-wide edict to make things Metro and here are the rules, with
total disregard to common sense and good intuitive design. MS is not alone in
this. Latest Apple software seem to throw out good design sense in favour of
sticking to a company-wide mandate to make things skeuomorphic, even if the
resulting user experience is a clusterfuck of complexity.

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pknobloch
I can't believe the fuss. People are complaining that the start menu will be
open when your computer boots up. You'll have to click on the desktop icon, or
perhaps click on a non-"Windows 8 Style" application which runs on the
desktop.

