Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview
engadget.com
engadget.com
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?
To use Windows Mobile, you had to deal with ActiveSync. To use ActiveSync, you have to be fairly tolerant and technically proficient. For example, when upgrading the OS, you have the responsibility(1) of manually backing up all your contacts, data, apps.
Contrast this with iTunes (yes, iTunes isn't elegant) - when iOS 4 came out - it downloaded it and asked if you wanted to upgrade your phone and did so without losing settings, data, apps. Now, Android supposedly can do OTA updates. The point here is if WinMo7 requires ActiveSync - it is severely behind the times.
I'm hoping WinMo7 won't require a user to use ActiveSync and it is all stored securely in the Windows Live cloud. I usually used lots of colorful adjectives when dealing with ActiveSync. I had a boss who was convinced to get a WinMo device by a co-worker; she lasted only about a month (ActiveSync).
(1) http://www.htc.com/www/supportdownload.aspx?p_id=59&cat=...
The data can also be synced via the Zune software on a desktop much like iTunes (but Zune Software is a far better experience in my opinion when it comes to music and video).
Unless MSFT starts paying phone manufacturers or developing their own hardware, I don't see this catching up as much as Android or IOS.
There is nothing intuitive about the OS and honestly very underwhelming, I doubt a consumer who is aware of IOS and Android and have the option of choosing either one of the three will end up with Windows7.
Could you elaborate on this?
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 fundamentally different way of how you use a mobile device. You could argue that when IOS was first introduced it was also a different way of how people uses mobile phones. But it was different in the sense that it was not confusing, it was very intuitive.
In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest. There no "Wow" factor. Who thought big blocks of animated tiles taking up huge screen real-state to be a good idea? I think this is also a good example of different design philosophy with MSFT and Apple. IOS with its new update introduced folder with the goal of giving you more screen real-state so that if you have a lot of apps you don't have to keep sliding and MSFT adds huge block of tiles (and animated!) that will require you to slide around to find what you need.
It would have made an interesting showcase for concept design that car manufacturers always make, but I don't see this being much practical at all.
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.
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.
With this logic taken to the extreme, we'd all still be using phones with a typical Nokia-interface. I'm very glad we don't.
What Windows Mobile 7 is doing is a fundamentally different way of how you use a mobile device. You could argue that when IOS was first introduced it was also a different way of how people uses mobile phones. But it was different in the sense that it was not confusing, it was very intuitive.
Just noting I read this part and that I agree.
In contrast Widows7 mobile UI is a confusing mess and very bland to be honest. There no "Wow" factor.
Having used a Windows 7 phone I have to disagree. It's very simple to use. It may lack a "Wow" factor but it is sufficiently different to be interesting.
IOS with its new update introduced folder with the goal of giving you more screen real-state so that if you have a lot of apps you don't have to keep sliding and MSFT adds huge block of tiles
The Windows Phone 7 idea is that you shouldn't need as many "apps", but that apps should plug in to "hubs". I like this idea, but getting back to the actual implementation my personal complaint about this is that too few of the hubs on the phone are extensible by applications.
but its not that bad reminds me of sony's PS nav.
That's exactly what I was thinking...something like Android 2.1's pinch to zoom out on the home screen which brings up miniature versions of the 7 screens you could get to by scrolling left/right.
I'm replacing my iPhone (3G) now and it's not for a Win7 phone, it's for an HTC Desire. Even to me, a .NET developer, Android seems like a better platform to develop for.
IMO Microsoft copied pretty much everything Apple did with iPhone,with a subtle taste of too little too late. Ofcourse I would love to be proven wrong, but for the time being I'm going for Android and Java, despite all its shortcomings compared to C#.
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.
Simplicity and ease-of-use have become key in today's world.
Doesn't the same apply to Android as well?
I do hope MS the best - the more competition we have in this sphere the better, and if the responsiveness/performance of the OS is as good as Engadget says, there will finally be some hard competition for the iPhone (Android is great, but I've yet to use one where the UI isn't sluggish, and it really detracts from the experience).
I'm primarily a .Net/Silverlight dev myself so I'm biased but the core development experience is better than Apple/Google IMHO. They do need to get off their asses and release more controls (like the pivot) or they aren't going to have standardized UI across apps.
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.
Yes and no. I have to admit I hoped for the ability to install any app you like (like in former versions of WinMo). Sadly that is no longer the case.
Silverlight/XNA development is fully OK for me, but it seems a tad restricted. Especially without the ability to run Silverlight in the browser, something which really, really surprised me when I heard it (at least that's what I got told on the Windows Phone 7 developer session).
The Engadget review mentions that the WP7 UI makes efficient use of a parallax effect where overlapping layers scroll at a different pace. That's a good example of a "2.5D" depth effect.
But maybe an ultra-stripped-down UI is a good choice for the first iteration, when you have a lot of stuff to implement.