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Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

engadget.com

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Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#11

Post by endtime »

pavs wrote: post #9
endtime wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is nothing intuitive about the OS Could you elaborate on this?

Sure. The UI doesn't follow a conventional way how people use UI in any form of mobile devices. There are differences in IOS, Android, Blackberry and PalmOS but those differences aren't huge. If you use either of those devices/OS who should be able to pickup any of the other devices relatively easily. At least this has been my personal experience with Android, IOS and WebOS. What Windows Mobile 7 is doing is a fundam…

>In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest. There no "Wow" factor.

Is this just your personal preference speaking? I actually was impressed when I first saw the UI, and the article describes it as useful and functional.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#12

Post by pavs »

endtime wrote: post #11
pavs wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. The UI doesn't follow a conventional way how people use UI in any form of mobile devices. There are differences in IOS, Android, Blackberry and PalmOS but those differences aren't huge. If you use either of those devices/OS who should be able to pickup any of the other devices relatively easily. At least this has been my personal experience with Android, IOS and WebOS. What Windows Mobile 7 is doing is a fundam…

>In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest. There no "Wow" factor. Is this just your personal preference speaking? I actually was impressed when I first saw the UI, and the article describes it as useful and functional.

Of course its my personal opinion. I don't claim to speak for everyone nor did I run any public poll. Everything I said in my comment is my own opinion from my own experience (with other mobile OS), unless otherwise stated.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#13

Post by aik »

hop wrote: post #5
watmough wrote: post #2

There's some unfinished, but clear documentation on this page: http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7/ In particular, this PDF gives a great flavor of designing for Windows Phone 7: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713252 Overall, I'm quite impressed. They've aimed at a similar target as Apple did with the original iPhone. Make it fast, clean and strip away as many features as you dare.

That would all be impressive if this was 2006, unfortunately, they are largely copying the iPhone with just a different graphic design theme. It is symptomatic of bigger problems in Microsoft's innovation lag.

Both the IPhone and Android are far from perfect devices. If MS can pull off an OS as responsive as IOS, be intuitive and simple, I could see many preferring it or at least considering it over other devices, despite less functionality. I'm not hugely familiar with the UI, but I do believe there are significant differences in the UI other than a different overlay. Also, the fact that they haven't already packed a billion features into the phone is a BIG plus in my opinion (as long as they have the essentials).

Simplicity and ease-of-use have become key in today's world.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#15

Post by rodh257 »

ttrashh wrote: post #6

I wonder how the apps are going to play out. XNA is used for the games and there are plenty of shops out there creating for xbox. It looks like porting existing XNA games to the phone will be fairly straightforward. I'm expecting Windows Phone 7 to be a big player in handheld gaming because of XNA/Xbox. I'm primarily a .Net/Silverlight dev myself so I'm biased but the core development experience is better than Apple/…

This is where MS can get the upper hand. If they are open enough with their app store, they can get developers there as the developer experience is going to be very good.

Its a chicken and egg thing though, most serious developers won't code for it until there is a market. Though they will get a fair few .NET developers who haven't done any Android or Objective-C iPhone stuff.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#16

Post by luminary »

pavs wrote: post #9
endtime wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There is nothing intuitive about the OS Could you elaborate on this?

Sure. The UI doesn't follow a conventional way how people use UI in any form of mobile devices. There are differences in IOS, Android, Blackberry and PalmOS but those differences aren't huge. If you use either of those devices/OS who should be able to pickup any of the other devices relatively easily. At least this has been my personal experience with Android, IOS and WebOS. What Windows Mobile 7 is doing is a fundam…

> In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest. There no "Wow" factor.

And that's the point, Albert Shum, a Nike-alum and now one of the folks behind this UI, is making. It's less about chrome/gloss but more about typography. Personally, I like it a lot. The "WP7 version of" Metro-UI seems to be inspired by direction signs (for travelers) you see at airports, train stations etc. that help people find their way.

More here: http://live.visitmix.com/MIX10/Sessions/CL14

I'm waiting for "HN pedagogues" to jump in and say MS is again copying Apple. Oh nevermind. Someone already did. Sigh.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#17

Post by confuzatron »

I don't object to minimalism, but I think that in some places this UI is straying into 8-bit retro brutalism, for want of a better phrase.

But maybe an ultra-stripped-down UI is a good choice for the first iteration, when you have a lot of stuff to implement.

Re: Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview

#18

Post by macrael »

I'm looking forward to seeing how these devices play in real world usage. The two things that jump out at me immediately.

1. Most important: On a device with a small screen pixels should be precious. It worries me that many of the built in apps use a significant and unchanging amount of the screen to tell you what app you are in. I don't know if it will really impact usability, maybe there is enough screen real estate to go around, but it seems wasteful. Perhaps the fact that many of the different app's UIs (especially the list UI and the list of tiles UI) look very very similar makes it necessary for you to have a 1/5 screen reminder that you are in the photos app and not the marketplace?

2. The multiple message selection is the best example of this, but there are others: many of the possible interactions with on screen elements are completely hidden and non-obvious. It would be difficult to discover that you can manage multiple messages by tapping on the far left hand side of a message. Contrast this with the iPhone, where you tap edit or whatever, and the message management UI comes on screen. It reminds me a little of the Anti-Mac interface (http://www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html) in that it is actually faster (you don't have to go and hit a button that takes up space on the screen in order to start moving messages around) but at the price of discoverability. Are there other examples of Windows Phone 7 being designed for expert/informed users?

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