6 votes
My opinion of Metro on Windows 8
13 January 2012
Don’t get me wrong I think Metro is a beautiful UI for a touch interface, fantastic even, but only for a touch interface. The problem with Microsoft is they don’t think out of the box. They think everything needs the same UI. This is why, when in early 2001 / 2002 Gates tried to get tablets mainstream he failed. To him everything had to run windows. He took the Windows XP UI, added a few touch / pen enhancements on it and slapped it onto a laptop with a touch screen.
You just can’t take something that wasn’t made for touch and slap some touch modifications on top. That’s what happened with Windows Mobile 6.5. Sure on the surface touch worked but once you started to get back into the bowels of the OS you were met with a UI built for a stylus. Microsoft learned their lesson (or did they) and realized they had to build something from the ground up that was made for touch and geared towards the mobile market. Thus Windows Phone 7 OS was born.
Now along comes Metro on Windows 8 and back to the tablet market they go. So now they think, hmm…. We have Windows 7 which is a great OS, much like how they thought Windows Mobile 5 was a great OS, but just needed some touch enhancements. So now they build a touch interface on top of Windows 7. The problem is, the same thing is going to happen on Tablets, which happened on Windows Mobile devices when they tried to build a touch UI onto something that wasn’t built for the finger. Sure metro will be great, but once the user leaves Metro they are met with something that was made for a mouse and keyboard.
What they should have done, is taken the Windows Phone 7 OS, the OS that was made for touch inside and out and put it on their tablets. Having just said that, I’m going to get people that say “OH NOES, can’t do that, because people can’t be productive with the WP7 OS!”. My response to that is, anybody who wants to be productive is not going to be using a tablet and touching a screen with their finger. They are going to grab a laptop or go to their desktop which utilizes a mouse and keyboard.
Because Microsoft thinks that one OS and UI should rule them all they decided to bring the Metro UI designed for touch over to the desktop and laptop market. Essentially doing in reverse what they did to the tablet market back in 2001 /2002. In the early 2000’s they brought a mouse and keyboard UI to a tablet, and now they are bringing a touch UI to the mouse and keyboard.
You just can’t take something that wasn’t made for touch and slap some touch modifications on top. That’s what happened with Windows Mobile 6.5. Sure on the surface touch worked but once you started to get back into the bowels of the OS you were met with a UI built for a stylus. Microsoft learned their lesson (or did they) and realized they had to build something from the ground up that was made for touch and geared towards the mobile market. Thus Windows Phone 7 OS was born.
Now along comes Metro on Windows 8 and back to the tablet market they go. So now they think, hmm…. We have Windows 7 which is a great OS, much like how they thought Windows Mobile 5 was a great OS, but just needed some touch enhancements. So now they build a touch interface on top of Windows 7. The problem is, the same thing is going to happen on Tablets, which happened on Windows Mobile devices when they tried to build a touch UI onto something that wasn’t built for the finger. Sure metro will be great, but once the user leaves Metro they are met with something that was made for a mouse and keyboard.
What they should have done, is taken the Windows Phone 7 OS, the OS that was made for touch inside and out and put it on their tablets. Having just said that, I’m going to get people that say “OH NOES, can’t do that, because people can’t be productive with the WP7 OS!”. My response to that is, anybody who wants to be productive is not going to be using a tablet and touching a screen with their finger. They are going to grab a laptop or go to their desktop which utilizes a mouse and keyboard.
Because Microsoft thinks that one OS and UI should rule them all they decided to bring the Metro UI designed for touch over to the desktop and laptop market. Essentially doing in reverse what they did to the tablet market back in 2001 /2002. In the early 2000’s they brought a mouse and keyboard UI to a tablet, and now they are bringing a touch UI to the mouse and keyboard.
2
If Metro was a separate platform that ran under Windows (think Windows Media Center), then things could have worked out much better. But Metro offers very little benefit for the desktop interface, and the desktop is still difficult to operate on touchscreen devices. Metro works for touchscreen because of large elements that are easy to click on. A mouse offers much more accurate point-and-click which makes it optimal for a desktop interface.