Before anybody complaint, Im not going to treat Windows 10 like a final release because obviously it is not. There are MANY bugs and broken visuals for sure. But here, Im going to talk about the core design, the usability, experience, and ergonomic. Something that is not going to, and should not change once the build goes beta. And quite frankly, from my perspective, they kinda screwed up the tablet experience.
Here's the thing, its important, nobody complained about Windows 8 experience on a tablet. Yes, sure, people do complain about Windows 8. Lots of people do. If youre sitting in a room right now, I can assure you that there is at least one person that got irritated by Windows 8. Even if youre in Redmond, WA. But those people are using Windows 8 on their $500 HP craptastic laptop (okay, that's too much of a generalization, but you get the idea).
Its not bad. It is the driving force behind Windows 10 itself. It is the main reason why they built Windows 10. It is a slap to Microsoft to remind them that people are not blind.
Anyway, Windows 8 was clearly built for a tablet, there is no debate. In fact, I find that Windows 8 was designed with tablet ergonomic in mind. It is the most ergonomic OS that I could ever think of for tablets. Seriously, swiping from the right to open the start screen is very natural. Swiping from the left side allows us to switch between app without awkwardly moving my hands across the entire screen. What day is it? What time is it? A simple swipe shows everything for you, no matter where you are. It was super comfortable, none of those actions require you to move both hands on both sides of the tablet. I didn't realize how convenient and comfortable those were until I tried Windows 10. When a design goes so deep into your nature, you start forgetting that somebody actually thought of that. Somebody spent time to make it happen to you. And yes, somebody did it on Windows 8. And somebody else screwed all of that on Windows 10.
But lets break for a moment from that, and talk about other fundamental design. It is much much worse than that. Which designer thought that it is a good idea to put the taskbar next to a metro app, ON A TABLET? I dont know about you, but for me it doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe for working with Office or stuff, but that doesn't make any sense for using YouTube apps and such, on a tablet. See, tablet apps are designed with most controls on the side, because, once again, our hands are sitting on both sides of the tablet. Putting a taskbar on either side is not a solution for that reason. Putting it down on the bottom? Forget it, its an ergonomic nightmare as I mentioned earlier. Moreover, the immersive experience is pretty much gone when the taskbar is there.
I do realize that theyre trying to blend WinRT and Win32 apps together. But, quite frankly, theyre not meant to be. Lets talk about the fundamental SOP of WinRT apps: open it, when youre done, go to the start screen, open something else, then forget about that app forever. It will stay in the background consuming practically zero resource. You can open it again and continue right where you left off. In fact, metro apps should NOT be closed. It will close itself when you need it. And it will be more efficent if you just leave it on the background. On the other hand, Win32 apps are not designed to be like that. Its designed to stay persistently on the memory. It stays open until you close them. When you have it in the background, only god knows what will happen. Perhaps it will consume some CPU cycle, perhaps it will leak the memory, perhaps it will nuke North Korea. Nobody knows.
In short, Win32 apps need more care. Metro apps dont. Putting Metro apps on Win32 environment (Windows 10 non-tablet mode) doesnt make an issue, since giving more care for something that doesnt need care is not a problem. But when you do it in the other way around, you start giving less care on something that does need one. And when it happens, bad thing could happen. Once again, North Korea, watch out.
All in all, I do now appreciate the ergonomic design that I took for granted in Windows 8. For me, Windows 10 feels, really feels like Windows 7 with all the apps, desktop or metro apps they don't really matter, forced to be maximized. If anything, Continuum on Windows 10 actually feels like a stop-gap update between Windows 7 and Windows 8, and that's not a good thing.
If there is anything I could recommend to Microsoft, it is to keep Windows 8.1 and its ergonomic design for tablet mode in Windows 10. Let the core features of Windows 10, like Universal Apps or Cortana, shine through Windows '8.1', but we dont need them to reinvent the wheel every year. Let the current Windows 10 be awesome on a desktop, as it was designed to be, but don't ruin the most ergonomic tablet experience in the world.
Don't get me wrong, I am not judging the visual aspect of Windows 10. Its for sure going to be fixed, but I was talking about the fundamental design, the core experience. Something that's not going to change once the build goes beta. And, once again, that is not a good thing
EDIT: UserVoice page https://windows.uservoice.com/forum...ss-the-ergonomic-design-experience-of-windows
Here's the thing, its important, nobody complained about Windows 8 experience on a tablet. Yes, sure, people do complain about Windows 8. Lots of people do. If youre sitting in a room right now, I can assure you that there is at least one person that got irritated by Windows 8. Even if youre in Redmond, WA. But those people are using Windows 8 on their $500 HP craptastic laptop (okay, that's too much of a generalization, but you get the idea).
Its not bad. It is the driving force behind Windows 10 itself. It is the main reason why they built Windows 10. It is a slap to Microsoft to remind them that people are not blind.
Anyway, Windows 8 was clearly built for a tablet, there is no debate. In fact, I find that Windows 8 was designed with tablet ergonomic in mind. It is the most ergonomic OS that I could ever think of for tablets. Seriously, swiping from the right to open the start screen is very natural. Swiping from the left side allows us to switch between app without awkwardly moving my hands across the entire screen. What day is it? What time is it? A simple swipe shows everything for you, no matter where you are. It was super comfortable, none of those actions require you to move both hands on both sides of the tablet. I didn't realize how convenient and comfortable those were until I tried Windows 10. When a design goes so deep into your nature, you start forgetting that somebody actually thought of that. Somebody spent time to make it happen to you. And yes, somebody did it on Windows 8. And somebody else screwed all of that on Windows 10.
But lets break for a moment from that, and talk about other fundamental design. It is much much worse than that. Which designer thought that it is a good idea to put the taskbar next to a metro app, ON A TABLET? I dont know about you, but for me it doesn't make any sense at all. Maybe for working with Office or stuff, but that doesn't make any sense for using YouTube apps and such, on a tablet. See, tablet apps are designed with most controls on the side, because, once again, our hands are sitting on both sides of the tablet. Putting a taskbar on either side is not a solution for that reason. Putting it down on the bottom? Forget it, its an ergonomic nightmare as I mentioned earlier. Moreover, the immersive experience is pretty much gone when the taskbar is there.
I do realize that theyre trying to blend WinRT and Win32 apps together. But, quite frankly, theyre not meant to be. Lets talk about the fundamental SOP of WinRT apps: open it, when youre done, go to the start screen, open something else, then forget about that app forever. It will stay in the background consuming practically zero resource. You can open it again and continue right where you left off. In fact, metro apps should NOT be closed. It will close itself when you need it. And it will be more efficent if you just leave it on the background. On the other hand, Win32 apps are not designed to be like that. Its designed to stay persistently on the memory. It stays open until you close them. When you have it in the background, only god knows what will happen. Perhaps it will consume some CPU cycle, perhaps it will leak the memory, perhaps it will nuke North Korea. Nobody knows.
In short, Win32 apps need more care. Metro apps dont. Putting Metro apps on Win32 environment (Windows 10 non-tablet mode) doesnt make an issue, since giving more care for something that doesnt need care is not a problem. But when you do it in the other way around, you start giving less care on something that does need one. And when it happens, bad thing could happen. Once again, North Korea, watch out.
All in all, I do now appreciate the ergonomic design that I took for granted in Windows 8. For me, Windows 10 feels, really feels like Windows 7 with all the apps, desktop or metro apps they don't really matter, forced to be maximized. If anything, Continuum on Windows 10 actually feels like a stop-gap update between Windows 7 and Windows 8, and that's not a good thing.
If there is anything I could recommend to Microsoft, it is to keep Windows 8.1 and its ergonomic design for tablet mode in Windows 10. Let the core features of Windows 10, like Universal Apps or Cortana, shine through Windows '8.1', but we dont need them to reinvent the wheel every year. Let the current Windows 10 be awesome on a desktop, as it was designed to be, but don't ruin the most ergonomic tablet experience in the world.
Don't get me wrong, I am not judging the visual aspect of Windows 10. Its for sure going to be fixed, but I was talking about the fundamental design, the core experience. Something that's not going to change once the build goes beta. And, once again, that is not a good thing
EDIT: UserVoice page https://windows.uservoice.com/forum...ss-the-ergonomic-design-experience-of-windows
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