Thursday, March 15, 2012

Pushback against Windows 8 Metro tiles

Famous and opinionated John C. Dvorak from PC Magazine
have a good point that Windows 8 (and Windows Phone 7)
Metro style interface is not as intuitive and easy to use as plain icons.
Another concern is that in Desktop mode lack of traditional "Start menu"
is a serious step back in usability...

The Serious Flaw with Win 8 and Metro | John C. Dvorak | PCMag.com

When you look at your desktop screen, how do you find the program you are looking for? You look for distinctive icons using your human ability to recognize patterns. It’s what we do best. You ignore the words beneath the icon.

Can an Ex-Microsoftie Fix Windows 8?


A deep dive into Windows 8 Consumer Preview @ PC World

Taking away the Start button makes the Desktop less useful than it was in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

From my limited experience in testing Windows 8,
the OS is slick and fast, and lack of Start menu is a real issue.
Metro style is not quite easy to use with keyboard and mouse.

I think the idea behind Metro style is to make tiles "live" with content,
so instead of searching for an app, it is looking for content.
Like personalized "Google News" page. A "Dashboard".
Trouble is that it is too "busy", like life of most people today.
Making people even more nervous about trivial things...