Harris was chief of the Windows User Experience for Windows 8. He created Windows 8. He created Metro UI. He created the Windows 8 Start screen, charms, allowed ads in its inbox apps (e.g. Weather), etc. Keep that in mind when Harris says things like "the Start menu is Microsoft's flagship user experience. It should represent the very best UI design the company is capable of."
Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
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Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#22Tested out the screen recording feature in Windows 11 yesterday. Thought it was nice to have this built into the OS - it can be activated using Win+Alt+R. It worked fine until I minimized the current window - this made it stop without giving any hint. Turns out "Gaming features aren't available for the Windows Desktop or File Explorer" - but it works fine for recording Chrome.
Experiences like this just feels user hostile and plentiful when using Windows.
The newer Start Menus causes stress any time I use them, as I have no idea how much data it will end up leaking, and because it is more likely to yield a random internet search than showing me a locally installed program.
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#23This article quotes Jensen Harris... the guy responsible for Windows 8 UI, which was a disaster.
Everyone on Twitter is a critic, thinking their opinion is the right one, and looking for their 5 minutes of fame by shitting on some low hanging fruit for clicks and likes hoping that will lift them out of their anonymity. I can't imagine a great designer like Jonny Ive (not that everything he did was perfect), sinking so low as to shit on Windows's start menu as he probably has bigger fish to fry. Great people don'…
Honestly, I think Jonny Ive makes good industrial design (minus the far too extreme "minimalism" push with the butterfly keyboard MacBooks; they really need an "editor" like Steve Jobs) but their UI/UX design has really not been good. Alan Dye is way worse.
I find modern Apple software UI/UX design to be really devoid of functionality, information density, etc. I'm not the only one with this opinion (just listen to any Accidental Tech Podcast episode where they talk about it).
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#24I work in IT. The Windows 10/11 "settings" are a hole pile of shit. It seems like Microsoft almost purposefully took the 10 things you would most often use, and nested them so deep that you cant even memorize how to find them anymore. So you get forced into using the god awful search, which returns results FROM THE GOD DAMN INTERNET. If I am in Windows setting, or hell even on just the normal Start Menu, I DON'T WANT…
Windows button and start typing what you're looking for. I don't understand users that still point and click at everything.
The search sometimes just straight up does not work for me. Like 1-2 Minutes after a cold boot (I have fast startup turned off) it's completely unusable.
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#25I work in IT. The Windows 10/11 "settings" are a hole pile of shit. It seems like Microsoft almost purposefully took the 10 things you would most often use, and nested them so deep that you cant even memorize how to find them anymore. So you get forced into using the god awful search, which returns results FROM THE GOD DAMN INTERNET. If I am in Windows setting, or hell even on just the normal Start Menu, I DON'T WANT…
Windows button and start typing what you're looking for. I don't understand users that still point and click at everything.
ever tried to test microphone volume levels? every fucking time I have to search three different things before I can find it. I try "microphone", "audio", "volume", and its always the last one I try, and I can never remember for the next time.
Search is not a good UI, because you never get muscle memory with a search.
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#26I work in IT. The Windows 10/11 "settings" are a hole pile of shit. It seems like Microsoft almost purposefully took the 10 things you would most often use, and nested them so deep that you cant even memorize how to find them anymore. So you get forced into using the god awful search, which returns results FROM THE GOD DAMN INTERNET. If I am in Windows setting, or hell even on just the normal Start Menu, I DON'T WANT…
Windows button and start typing what you're looking for. I don't understand users that still point and click at everything.
Poor discoverability. This means you have to know that the setting exists in the first place, and then remember its precise name. Type "static IP" into search, do you see a way to set static IP? I don't get any results at all.
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Loved this comment. There was a time when we used to say the same about Windows Xp. And Windows 2000. I wonder if each next generation of user prefers the new layouts each time? I’m sure (or at least, I imagine) MS put a lot of resources into testing these UI overhauls.
XP was fine. 2000 was good. Nobody pines for Windows ME. People said those things and they meant it. Windows 8-11 feel pretty bad, overall. 7 was okay.
XP was fine because you could throw it into 2000 mode, though looking back the fisher-price UI was just the UI.
Windows Vista wasn't terrible if you had a beefy machine and well-supported hardware. 7 was basically Vista but with newer machines and better hardware support. 8+ has been meh.
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#28I would pay so much money to just be able to use Windows 7's UI with Windows 10's performance improvements. Try spinning Windows 7 up in a VM sometime. Using it is such a wonderous experience. It's almost perfect. I miss it so much. To me, Windows 8/8.1/10/11 have all been massive downgrades to different extents.
I thought Windows 8 was pretty good at the time, in hindsight because I had a Surface Pro and that was the computer that it was entirely designed for. Their three-column splitscreen layout was neat, if you could look past only having about 5 of the newfangled-touchscreen-UI-apps worth installing in the entire store. Or if you treated the OS as mostly being a OneNote launcher. These days I'm inclined to agree with you…
The drawing app that shipped with windows 8 and early windows 10 was also fantastic on a surface -- it's a pity that it's gon
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#29This article quotes Jensen Harris... the guy responsible for Windows 8 UI, which was a disaster.
Everyone on Twitter is a critic, thinking their opinion is the right one, and looking for their 5 minutes of fame by shitting on some low hanging fruit for clicks and likes hoping that will lift them out of their anonymity. I can't imagine a great designer like Jonny Ive (not that everything he did was perfect), sinking so low as to shit on Windows's start menu as he probably has bigger fish to fry. Great people don'…
Shitting on low hanging fruit is an unusual activity
Re: Microsoft's ex-UI chief is shocked about the Windows 11 start menu
#30I would pay so much money to just be able to use Windows 7's UI with Windows 10's performance improvements. Try spinning Windows 7 up in a VM sometime. Using it is such a wonderous experience. It's almost perfect. I miss it so much. To me, Windows 8/8.1/10/11 have all been massive downgrades to different extents.
I for one, couldn't go back to a laptop without a touch screen, and for current purposes, Id be unhappy without the pen input to go with the multi touch.
While the UIs look bad, the touch and pen UX together in windows 10 is fantastic