[Walter Soyka] "Metro is certainly different and takes a bit of getting used to, but humanity somehow survived without a start button prior to Windows 95, and we collectively managed to learn to use a bunch of other new computing interfaces, including DOS, Win 3.1, Win95, OS9, OS X, iOS, and Android."
And aside from DOS, what do all of those have in common? Visual cues in the UI. Once users wrapped their heads around pointing devices, they figured out that there were "buttons" on the screen that did stuff when clicked. DOS did not, and that is why the Macintosh and later Windows was so popular. DOS was hardly mainstream, only hardcore early computer users used DOS or its command line peers. The GUI and the pointing device brought general purpose computing to the masses and made the tomes of command line syntax obsolete. Users could find their own way via visual conventions being established for GUIs and pointing devices.
Where Win8 and Metro fails on the desktop is that there are no visual cues for essential functions. The vast majority of the world's 500,000,000+ Windows users will be utterly lost in Win8 because they are expected to know secret-handshake "gestures" (which are not really gestures when you aren't using touch) that they must perform with a mouse pointer when they are used to 15 years of having visual cues to click on with their mice. There is no on-screen indication of how to access the Start Screen from the desktop (once you've figured out how to get to it), how to close a Metro App, or a host of other essential navigation functions.
To wit:
There's a guy who has used Windows for years, prefers it, and is utterly lost in Win8. I can relate (to the being lost part- I've always disliked Windows). I found myself poking around in vain like he did, and ultimately having to google how to do things in Win8. Even though I dislike Windows, I consider myself an above-average user, and I was lost. I can only imagine how frustrating it will be for the rank and file.
Yes, Microsoft can add tutorial videos that play when a user logs in the first time, but that's still a failure. Memorizing gestures and having to perform them with a mouse on a large screen is just bad UI design. Think of the headaches this will cause for IT departments who might deploy it to hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands) of corporate users, virtually all of whom will be as lost as I was. The training expense will be considerable.
[Walter Soyka] "Like FCPX, Metro requires retraining, though I don't think that it requires thinking different to the degree that FCPX does. Also like FCPX, I think that some people will find they actually prefer Metro after getting used to it, and I'd suspect that you'll have go pry the Start button from the cold, dead hands of others."
FCPX requires retraining for veteran NLE users, but it is reportedly a very quick uptake for novices. That's the big difference between FCPX's UI and Win8's UI- you can sit down with no instruction and stumble though FCPX. In Win8 you'll reach dead ends in the UI that you cannot escape without a secret-handshake gesture.
[Walter Soyka] "There are a few cool things to like about Metro. It's clean and uncluttered with very little chrome, and a big emphasis on design, layout and large type to convey information instead of dozens of on-screen widgets, icons, and doodads. It's eminently touchable, but still reasonably keyboard-friendly with instant search."
Metro is nice looking, and I like the design language. It is clearly designed for touch first, and even then you need to know the secret-handshake gestures to navigate. Gestures are a great option for power users, but for the vast majority of users, on-screen UI indications of what can be done is the only way they will know what they can do to navigate. How many iPad users do you think know about and use the gesture to swipe between apps? How many do you think know about double-tapping the home button to switch apps?
Microsoft saw what was happening in the market with iPad sales and figured they needed to out-flank Apple on the seemingly inevitable convergence of iOS and OS X. This is ironic, because Apple has doubled down on the desktop by accelerating the release tempo of OS X to match the annual cycle of iOS. The day may come when you can dock an iPad or iPhone with a screen, keyboard, and pointing device, and get a modified UI with windowing that resembles OS X, but I think that day is still several years away at minimum.
WARNING: ANALOGY/METAPHOR APPROACHING!
Microsoft is jumping off the high dive into a pool that hasn't finished filling.
[Walter Soyka] "While it will create a lot of headlines, I don't know if Metro will really big a big deal for most of us. Without a Metro-native NLE, Metro will be a bit like Launchpad. I won't be spending a ton of time in it: the vast majority of my time on my workstation is spent in the apps I do my work in, not on the desktop or in the start menu. Whether I launch AE, Pr, or C4D from the start menu, the task bar, the dock, or a tile seems immaterial."
I agree, for a dedicated workstation there is less poking around the OS. You get your handful of apps pinned to the task tray or Start screen and learn the secret handshakes. You'll get situated and get on with your work. But can you really argue that Microsoft isn't making things unnecessarily obtuse with the hidden UI in Win8? If the premise of this thread is that Win8 will tank worse than Vista, I'll buy that. Unless Microsoft makes some significant adjustments to the UI before launch (and they could), I think they will have a very upset user base on their hands.
Best,
Andy
