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IDEA: a software that makes normal windows apps more touch friendly.

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superboyac:
I don't know if something like this is even possible, but I'll be interested in the discussion.

SO after using a windows tablet for a while, I now understand the main complaint. The problem when you are using windows in desktop mode with a touch interface, is basically the size of the touchable things.  THey are too small, and this is mainly where all the complaints are.  The only difference between normal programs and windows "apps" is that the apps are running in full screen, and instead of the menu bar and other normal desktop elements, those options have been designed into more touch-friendly elements...big buttons, large text, etc.  Unfortunately, the apps are lame and useless.  With windows, most people just want to use their normal windows programs.

But the frustration is that it's not so easy to touch the tiny things.  Now, we can wait for the developers to convert all their interfaces to touch-friendly apps, but this will take years.  Maybe there's some way to just make the standard toolbars and menu bars bigger.  I got the idea from programs like Actual Window Manager and other things that add stuff to toolbars and can add features to standard windows.  So maybe there's a way to just make stuff bigger.

An example is mouser's screenshot captor.  I'm using it, and i have the windows settings for icons and stuff set to larger than normal.  However, the buttons in SSC are still tiny because the tablet resolution is so high.  The text is ok, but things are scrunched.

Anyway, this is really the main issue with the windows interface, and I'm curious how this will progress.  I love the fact that the windows desktop is now as portable as an ipad or android.  Windows programs are very powerful...that's why there are so many buttons and menu items, etc.  Ipad/android can't do anything...you only have a button or two, how many features can you really have?  That's why these tablets are not very powerful right now.  On the other hand, they are smooth and very easy to use.  This is the dilemma.  Big buttons, big text == fewer options.  Lots of buttons, lots of text == tinier elements that are hard to touch.

dr_andus:
Not to shoot down your idea, and I know this is not a helpful suggestion in the current circumstances, but wouldn't the obvious solution be to use a stylus and optimise the software for stylus use? It worked for the Palm Pilot... There must have been a point when the head honchos at MS threw out that idea, probably thinking that people are idiots and they will lose their styluses, or they are idiots and would not know how to use a stylus, so let's just design everything for their fingers, as even cavemen would be able to use those.

I don't have a problem with your suggestion. I'm just annoyed that many software designers now seem to be assuming that the tablet is the only way and they are starting to waste screen real estate for us desktop users who are happy to use a mouse...

Sorry, I just had to get this rant out of my system...  :) This whole trend towards redesigning desktop apps (and websites) for tablets annoys the hell out of me. I must be becoming a dinosaur...  ;)

P.S. but thanks for sharing your experience. My first tablet was a Win tablet many years ago, and I sent it back the same day, for the reasons you mentioned. So I'm a bit surprised they are still grappling with those problems.

TaoPhoenix:
It's a tough call, because on the desktop space we've gone "anti-tablet" ... aka just because of limits of tech, remember the old 19" ish monitor days? So people built stuff with that in mind.

Now screens have not just gotten bigger overall, but specifically they've changed dimensions. In about 2006 as a "screw you" to my old employer for being "penny wise pound foolish", I bought *my own* monitor, out of that year's birthday money, and plunked it on my desk, and said, (paraphrased for drama) "Hai. You couldn't be bothered. So there are many monitors but this one is mine. I'm going back to work now. And the time I save doing what I always used to leaves me Google's 20% left to scout deep and fix $hit so when you want to through some faux mgt emergency at me, I have a couple tricks up my sleeve. K Thx Bye."

When it finally died last month, my brother remarked that it was only a "hybrid" widescreen - my new one has traded an inch of height for an inch of width (or whatever still comes out to 24" diagonally.) A couple of my (non-work) flows suffered, other ones gained, I adapted. (Hello Borg!)

So then suddenly, and ya gotta credit Steve Jobs for PWNing the smartphone concept-space, phones went from useless pieces of crap to "Omg I used to hate phones worse than root canals but even I can enjoy a calculator, and the fact it doesn't auto-dial from my pocket once a week!"

Then of course, way too much power for a phone showed up, so then we got Tablets - Yay Phone, Minus Phone, Bigger Screen. But still locked down to all hell. (Then this Phablet mess. When you can't Innovate cap-I, and that was what both i-Phone and Android did, you search for innovate small i, which is fill in nooks and crannies. As long as revenues exceed costs, you win.)

Ever seen the mobile sites of various pages? What a disaster. Now we have Touch to worry about. If Tablet makers just let you plug in a mouse, you would be ... sorta ... fine. But Steve J, in a fairly canny move for the masses, made it touch-only.

Wait for it ... Smaller screen, Huge mouse (finger).

So my first thought experiment is a meta-program that sez, (Sorry, Cat-speak attack for a day or two) "Hai. You look like you are accessing a menu. That means you're not working. So let's make the menu ultra sized, so you can click your buttons. Then when you are done, we'll go back to normal so you can see your work. K Thx  Bye."

TaoPhoenix:
Not to shoot down your idea, and I know this is not a helpful suggestion in the current circumstances, but wouldn't the obvious solution be to use a stylus and optimise the software for stylus use? It worked for the Palm Pilot... There must have been a point when the head honchos at MS threw out that idea ...
-dr_andus (September 25, 2014, 05:54 PM)
--- End quote ---

Last I recall, it was Steve Jobs who threw out Styluses. Some quote somewhere that went like "if you need a stylus, you're doing it wrong."

Now you can add it back, but Steve J was the leader of the Finger Is Good movement. Because we all miss Kindergarten because we like using fingers, and people kept losing the stylus.

dr_andus:
Last I recall, it was Steve Jobs who threw out Styluses. Some quote somewhere that went like "if you need a stylus, you're doing it wrong."
-TaoPhoenix (September 25, 2014, 06:06 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yes, well, he was right about mass market products. But here we're talking about niche applications for sophisticated users. So MS is shoving down the touch interface the wrong throats (excuse the mixed metaphor) or the wrong way...

And just for the record, if you lost your stylus, you could use any old object that had a tip with the Palm. Not that it saved them from ending up on the scrapheap of technological history... But the world is poorer [wipes away tear]...

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