In Praise Of Metro

[Turk]

By Frederic Lardinois Posted 7 hours ago

It looks like Microsoft has finally realized that Metro (or the Modern UI or whatever else they call it these days) wasn’t right for the desktop. If the rumors are true, it’ll continue to de-emphasize Metro with the first major Windows 8.1 update later this year. No doubt, that’s exactly the right thing to do. Metro is actually a great user interface – just not on the desktop.

So let’s look at the positive side: On a tablet, Metro is actually really, really good. On a tablet like the Surface, it’s a more productive interface than iOS or Android. In large parts, that’s because you can have more than one app on the screen, something Microsoft often emphasized in its ads, but something you only really come to appreciate when you switch back from a Windows tablet to an iPad.

It suffers from the lack of must-have apps and Microsoft never quite figured out how to get decent apps on the platform. Even today – with the exception of games – the best Metro apps are actually from Microsoft itself. Bing News is a very nice newsreader, for example. Microsoft’s finance app, too, is very good, and so are SkyDrive/OneDrive, Xbox Music, Bing Weather and Bing Maps (and especially the latest preview version). Live tiles are a great idea. Even Internet Explorer in Metro turns out to be a fast, touch-first browser.

Those apps, however, show the potential of a platform that is radically different from its competitors (which may just explain its failure). Microsoft was willing to take a gamble and created a modern, highly usable user interface that can sometimes make the competition look like it’s a few years behind the design curve.

Metro uses some touch gestures that aren’t always intuitive. Who would think to slide in from the left and slide right back to open your recently used apps? Slide in from the right to bring up your “charms” and settings? Once you get used to its quirks, though, it all just works.

Yet if failed and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of business school papers written about Windows 8 in the future.

Instapaper founder Marco Arment argues Windows 8 – and Metro specifically – failed because “Microsoft isn’t Apple, and Microsoft’s customers aren’t Apple’s customers.” In his view, Microsoft’s customers weren’t ready for this radical change and the company forgot who its customers are.

There’s some truth to that, but my feeling is that Microsoft’s main mistake was simply to force the old desktop and the new tile-based interface into a single operating system. Just like Apple, Microsoft understood that a touch interface has to be different from a regular desktop interface. But instead of just building a Windows for tablets (preferably with a name that didn’t include “Windows” at all to avoid confusion) and a better Windows 7, it just had to cram it all into one.

In a way, Windows RT was supposed to be that Windows for tablets, but even that had a built-in desktop so people could run Office. But RT just confused people. If Microsoft had just allowed itself to let go of its Office fetish, it may have had a better chance at making RT a success.

Metro is great, but Microsoft was clearly wrong when it thought people would quickly adopt touch on the desktop and on their laptops. Maybe that’ll still happen, but for now, it’s doing the right thing for its users by hiding as much of the Metro interface as possible.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/02/in-praise-of-metro

[Cereberus]

i disagree.

windows 8 and 8.1 isn't bad, except for the metro which makes it worse.

the metro is pretty much the interface used by their smartphones which by the way nobody likes. but in order to shove it down the consumer throats, they've added it to their os, in the hopes this will get people interested in their smartphones as well. It hasn't happened, and i would think that the majority much prefer the android interface much better, and as such are turned off by the boxy button designs meant as a bridge to portable device interface.

the only part of metro that may have seemed okay, was the app list. but even then, i felt that people were also put off when accidentally tabbing into the metro section which requires you to scroll to the top corner of the window to switch screens.

i understand why they did that instead of making tabs on the bottom panel, but it's taken some getting use to, and some proneness to accidentally minimizing you screen that way now and then.

in summary metro seems to be a replacement for the usual start menu list, in favor for an interface to make the os easily navigatable by mobile devices. the intent is a good one, but the design has failed getting public approval :/

i think microsoft should buy out stardock fences app, and integrate that into the OS. that is a much more impressive update to the os interface that has been lacking thus far, but stardock had added to enrich the os experience.

as for the start menu, i like stardock's start 8 which is pretty much what it sort of looked like in windows 7. people want something simple like that. easy and fast to navigate without fuss.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Cereberus

[BobDude]

the metro is pretty much the interface used by their smartphones which by the way nobody likes

...

as for the start menu, i like stardock's start 8 which is pretty much what it sort of looked like in windows 7. people want something simple like that. easy and fast to navigate without fuss.

I like anecdotal evidence as much as the next guy, so without further ado: the vast majority of people, many Apple and Android fans, I have come across who have actually spent some time using MS's smartphones have ended up loving it. The WP UI is fresh, clean, intuitive and far easier to use. On the contrary, the rest are derivative and boring.

Traditional start menus are a fuss. Metro replaces them with a far simpler (flat) interface than a more complex, traditional, tree style menu. Data represented 2 dimensionally as opposed to in a tree structure is simpler to view, navigate and grasp. The problem isn't with Metro, it is, as per Turk's article's suggestion, that many traditional Windows users simply aren't ready for such a change. They are too traditional. Change is a radical thing. Hence Android and Apple both used shortcut icons on a desktop surface to represent applications... boring, traditional, derivative. But... The irony of your suggestion that no one likes the interface on MS smartphones is highlighted by the fact that Apple, in its latest OS, have begun to use many of the Metro design stylings.

Everyone has their own opinion, and as such they are all entitled to it, so I'd suggest you rather not decide what it is people want based off of what your opinion is. Afterall, you do not speak for the world's population.

Edited February 3, 2014 by BobDude

[Lorem Ipsum]

Metro was included in Windows 8 (the desktop OS) so developers could truely write once (one source code base), and deploy everywhere on Windows: desktop, tablet, phone, etc whether for retail sales, or in-house (corporate) use. Saving money, time, and lowering the number of support staff needed.

The benefit for Windows users would be that they could use Metro based programs/apps on all hardware with Metro (desktop, tablet and phone). Without many difference in the interface and functionality (desktop has no rotation, motion sensor, etc), and how the software is operated. And sometimes with just one purchase for use on all 3.

The benefit for Microsoft is of course more sales (client lock-in).

So Microsoft were forced to create common ground. Metro on the desktop.

You can check this at the Microsoft developer conference site:

http://www.buildwindows.com/

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2013

http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012

There are a lot of videos explaining all the ideas and decisions behind Windows 8 and RT.

Especially the ones from 2012 and early 2013.

What Microsoft will probably do, is the usual, give the nay sayers what they want (Win7 Desktop+Start Menu) and don't remove, but hide what they don't want (Metro).

But Microsoft can't remove Metro under the hood. They would have to rewrite large parts of the API. And come back on their promise to developers/corporate organizations.

Edited February 3, 2014 by Lorem Ipsum

[Chancer]

The more I use my Surface, the more I appreciate the Windows 8.1 start system/screen/metro/callitwhatyouwill.