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What the Heck is Happening to Windows? Article on Windows 8 Disaster
xtabber:
I can't help but think Windows-RT will eventually go the way of Windows CE (now CE was one cool and fast little OS!) and Surface the way of Zune.
-40hz (March 19, 2014, 12:36 AM)
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Don't forget the Windows Tablet PC. That's where I got bitten.
-wraith808 (March 19, 2014, 10:41 AM)
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RT is dead because it does not provide any of the advantages of Windows and the interface is simply not as usable as either Android or iOS on either phones or tablets. With all due respect to johnk for his personal experience, "Tile World" as David Pogue refers to it is a usability disaster.
See this post for a description of my my recent experience with a Windows 8.1 tablet. It's not quite there yet, but clearly, the future of Windows (not RT), is probably going to be running on tablets. The ability to use a single device on the go and also as a desktop PC, just by docking it with a keyboard/mouse/monitor, is a huge advantage over Android and iOS devices. The biggest stumbling block may well be the nearly unusable tiled interface.
What on earth were the executives at Microsoft thinking when they signed off on that ridiculous design?
That said, x86 Windows tablets are not going to replace ARM based devices running Android or iOS for consumer mobile devices because they do not use power as efficiently. The fact that run times for both kinds of devices are similar is deceptive, because most of that depends on the display, not the processor. It's when the display is off that you really see the difference. The battery in a Windows PC will run down quickly if you don't actually shut the system down, whereas ARM devices can last a very long time on battery power in sleep mode while still keeping essential processes going.
wraith808:
RT is dead because it does not provide any of the advantages of Windows and the interface is simply not as usable as either Android or iOS on either phones or tablets. With all due respect to johnk for his personal experience, "Tile World" as David Pogue refers to it is a usability disaster.
-xtabber (March 19, 2014, 05:21 PM)
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It's not just Johnk... if I weren't a power user, it wouldn't have been bad. My son loves it. I know several other people that do also. It's not a useability nightmare, I think, as much as it is a marketing and PR nightmare.
johnk:
It's not a useability nightmare, I think, as much as it is a marketing and PR nightmare.
-wraith808 (March 19, 2014, 07:09 PM)
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That sums it up for me, really. I've never understood the criticism of its usability. Once you get your head around what the RT desktop can and cannot achieve, it's fine, and fulfils my needs.
But in asking the marketing department to explain a new OS with "a desktop that isn't really a desktop", the designers gave the marketing people a tough task, and they just weren't up to it. Having read all the negative publicity, I long ago decided not to buy an RT product. It was only after deeper reading, and seeing the discounted price, that I decided to give it a go. I'm very glad I did.
xtabber:
The problem with the tiled interface is that it imposes an unnecessary cognitive burden that makes it harder to accomplish what you want to do. Without delving too deeply into cognitive neuroscience. the human brain operates by recognizing patterns. If the needed information can't be immediately determined, it switches from "fast" (subconscious) to "slow" (conscious) processing in order to figure things out.
In the case of the Windows "Modern" interface, the dominant pattern consists of the tiles themselves, which appear identical until one deciphers the ideogram on each one. This slows the process by which the user recognizes the function of each tile, if only by milliseconds, but enough disrupt thinking and distract from the intended task.
I actually like the look of the Windows tiled interface which reminds me of the conceptual art of Sol Lewitt. But Lewitt wanted to force the viewer to take time to figure out the patterns in his designs. That's not what you want from a user interface.
And there are other usability problems. The ideograms are too stylized to be immediately recognizable -- a problem that some people have also found with the "flat" look adopted by the latest version of iOS. A more important criticism is that there is no consistent way to navigate the interface, let alone between "Modern" apps and Windows programs.
So even if you personally find the tiled interface to be aesthetically pleasing and it meets your personal needs, it generally provides a less productive environment than alternative mobile or PC operating systems, which is why it has met such determined resistance.
ewemoa:
A bit off-topic but anyway related with the change of user interface. I've bought an androd tablet 7'' in size recently, the problem is that if you dont put it on a table you are limited to work with just your thumbs besides the default keyboard is not qwerty with arrows. Id like that you managed the virtual keyboard from behind being the rear part of the tablet tactile as well if you hold it with yor hands, this way all fingers would beavailable and a tablet could be far more comfortable for gaming and working on train or when you sit on an armchair. id like also to have to tap as many times as possible to magnify anything, be it a button, link, input box..a magnified region should be brought up for anything.
Keyboard should be semitransparent whith a key magnified as soon as the user puts a finger over it. Wrapping huge text conveniently is very important to avoid having the user scroll too much, uff I find myself scrolling\enlarging all the time.
-kilele (March 19, 2014, 08:16 AM)
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Mmm, some nice ideas :) I hope some relevant folks incorporate some or all of these!
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