Why Windows UI Matters: Part 2

This post comes into 2 parts:

1. Typography
2. Colors and Tiles (this one)

Following my first post about Typography in Windows 8, I would like in this post to talk more about colors and the tile concept in Windows Phone and Windows 8.x.

If you create a new account on your Windows 8.x, you will get the following start screen (on a 27")

First remark, it looks empty. We know the problem for a long time: this was designed for smaller form factors - Windows Phone but unfortunately we got it as-is on desktop.

Second remark, we also start to get a glimpse of the color problem with the Metro/Tile concept: It looks flashy.

Why Windows UI Matters: Part 1

This post comes into 2 parts:

1. Typography (this one)
2. Colors and Tiles

You have probably seen some leaks of screenshots of the next Windows and while this could be - or not - the technical preview that is going to be released later this month for enterprise preview, I have been a bit shocked by the poorness of the UI visuals. Lots of commentators are saying that Microsoft is usually tweaking the OS UI few months before releasing to the public, fine, but I hope this technical preview will unveil a better sneak peak of next Windows UI. If it does not, that's really an unfortunate move, because all these images are already generating misunderstanding.

We are lots around waiting and watching for the next Windows. We are not just waiting for the desktop to come back, we are waiting for something that will make us happy and excited! I'm not a UI designer, I'm just a developer using Windows, but I love good visuals and I'm concerned by the OS UI that accompanies me all along more than 12 hours per day!

I won't comment more on the next Windows OS, but I would like to take the opportunity to share some of the unpleasant things I'm feeling about for the past years with the Windows Metro UI era.