455 replies to this topic 3 votes

[GP007]

Subhadip, on 17 May 2012 - 08:20, said:

I feel the same way. 90% of Windows 8 discussion is simply - "Metro sucks".

I expected no less, either way all the start screen needs for me is a few more customization options, like a better way to handle large lists of tiles instead of just endlessly scrolling left or right. Tile groups is a start but I'd like to see a way to collapse and expand those groups when needed so we can keep the start screen from turning into some crazy long horizontal line.

[Anthonyd]

GP007, on 17 May 2012 - 09:58, said:

I expected no less, either way all the start screen needs for me is a few more customization options, like a better way to handle large lists of tiles instead of just endlessly scrolling left or right. Tile groups is a start but I'd like to see a way to collapse and expand those groups when needed so we can keep the start screen from turning into some crazy long horizontal line.

The zoom out button isn't enough for you ? Also you can order the group and put the most used apps in front.

[GP007]

Anthonyd, on 17 May 2012 - 10:13, said:

The zoom out button isn't enough for you ? Also you can order the group and put the most used apps in front.

Zoom out is fine though you have to wonder how good it will keep being when you end up with a long list anyways? If you don't install much then that's ok, but for those who do there should be at least another way to quickly move to another spot . Having the group names listed at the top, sorta like the way it's done on the Xbox 360's dashboard would also work, and work faster than zooming out and back in. It'd also be easier for users to figure out, I question how many will find out about zoom out even when it's got it's own button in the UI.

Makes me wonder how many people even know about Aero peak, I bet most average users trigger it by mistake, freak out and then thank god their window shows up again after they move the mouse around out of panic.

[osuwildlifer]

GP007, on 17 May 2012 - 10:25, said:

Zoom out is fine though you have to wonder how good it will keep being when you end up with a long list anyways? If you don't install much then that's ok, but for those who do there should be at least another way to quickly move to another spot . Having the group names listed at the top, sorta like the way it's done on the Xbox 360's dashboard would also work, and work faster than zooming out and back in. It'd also be easier for users to figure out, I question how many will find out about zoom out even when it's got it's own button in the UI.

Yeah, i agree with that. It's good that the zoom out feature is there, but only power users are ever going to figure out how to use it. And as you mention, when the Start Screen starts growing, it gets more and more annoying.

Quote

Makes me wonder how many people even know about Aero peak, I bet most average users trigger it by mistake, freak out and then thank god their window shows up again after they move the mouse around out of panic.

Too true! I've seen people freak out about that at work on Windows 7. "OMG where'd it go?!? Stupid $%^&ing computer just lost my work!! Oh, there it is."

[Anthonyd]

GP007, on 17 May 2012 - 10:25, said:

Zoom out is fine though you have to wonder how good it will keep being when you end up with a long list anyways? If you don't install much then that's ok, but for those who do there should be at least another way to quickly move to another spot . Having the group names listed at the top, sorta like the way it's done on the Xbox 360's dashboard would also work, and work faster than zooming out and back in. It'd also be easier for users to figure out, I question how many will find out about zoom out even when it's got it's own button in the UI.

You only have to pin your favorites apps, not all installed items are showed on that list.
You are asking for group name in top, which can be an issue if you have many group. That's why you can zoom out and see the list of all your groups at once to select the one you are looking for.

[Dot Matrix]

osuwildlifer, on 17 May 2012 - 10:38, said:

Too true! I've seen people freak out about that at work on Windows 7. "OMG where'd it go?!? Stupid $%^&ing computer just lost my work!! Oh, there it is."

AERO Peek would have been a better feature had Microsoft overhauled the desktop gadgets. Not sure why it's there when no one uses them.

[.Neo]

Dot Matrix, on 17 May 2012 - 11:03, said:

AERO Peek would have been a better feature had Microsoft overhauled the desktop gadgets. Not sure why it's there when no one uses them.

It's the same on OS X really. The whole widget/gadget concept more or less failed if you'd ask me. While they were fun in the beginning, in the end they just weren't that practical in my opinion. Then there's the fact that both Apple and Microsoft stopped improving the build-in widgets and third-parties stopped investing in it too. The smartphone/tablet made it even more redundant.

These days I hardly ever use Dashboard anymore.

[GP007]

Anthonyd, on 17 May 2012 - 10:59, said:

You only have to pin your favorites apps, not all installed items are showed on that list.
You are asking for group name in top, which can be an issue if you have many group. That's why you can zoom out and see the list of all your groups at once to select the one you are looking for.

I get that, i'm not saying it doesn't work the way it is, for the most part it does. All I'm saying is that there should be one or two more ways to do things and then people can go with what works better for them. I know pinning the stuff you want up front and so on is the best choice but the default behavior so far is that anything you install gets a tile slapped up there (would be nice to get a choice when installing apps ofc), and then how many people are going to bother to remove all of them? How many will even know you can name groups and move them around etc?

I just figure a good chunk of stuff (unless MS does a great job with it's tutorial) is going to go unused or unknown by the majority of future Win8 users until someone a bit more technical points it out.

Going off on another feature, since multimon was brought up yesterday, lots of people want the start screen to be able to take up all of the screens (as an option) and not just limited to one of them. Also they would like to be able to have different metro apps per screen as well, right now it seems like metro app(s) only open in the monitor you have set to open the start screen itself though you can pretty easily move the open app around.

[Anthonyd]

I get your point

About multi-monitor metro apps/start screen, I don't think that it's going to happen, especially for apps. Because having 2 monitors doesn't makes it a single but larger rectangle. If the screen are different, it can do something like this :

----------------------
| |
| | -------------------
| | | |
|_____________| |___________|

(yes bad drawning is bad!)

Inside Windows CP, you can set where the corners match, it's not going to do a single rectangle, software wise. Hence it will be a NIGHTMARE for devs to supports this

edit : Neowin sux at matching post preview & final result

[winlonghorn]

bogas04, on 17 May 2012 - 02:05, said:

4th is my birthday

Awesome! I hope it shows up that day then. That would be great timing for you!

[contextfree]

GP007, on 17 May 2012 - 10:25, said:

It'd also be easier for users to figure out, I question how many will find out about zoom out even when it's got it's own button in the UI.

Zoom isn't just for Start though, semantic zoom is meant to be a standard interface convention for all Metro style apps. So you should only have to learn it in one place and then use it anywhere, at least that's the hope.

[GP007]

contextfree, on 17 May 2012 - 21:52, said:

Zoom isn't just for Start though, semantic zoom is meant to be a standard interface convention for all Metro style apps. So you should only have to learn it in one place and then use it anywhere, at least that's the hope.

That sounds good but have you seen an app yet that uses it? Outside of the start screen I don't know of any app that does.

[contextfree]

I've seen most apps where it applies use it - Bing Weather/Finance, Photos, Store, etc. They don't have the button in the corner because the app frameworks haven't been updated to match the Start screen yet - they seem to be about a milestone behind in general - but you can do it with touch or via Ctrl-scroll.

[FaiKee]

2 weeks to go

[FaiKee]