“The problem with Windows 8 and Metro finally became clear to me when I was confronted by a wall of tiles and was lost,” John C. Dvorak writes for PC Magazine. “The sameness made it impossible to find anything. Why anyone would revert to vague and homogeneous tiles from highly identifiable icons is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps someone thinks it’s more artsy.”
“People sense something is wrong. The miserable sales of the Phone 7 products reflect the user sensitivity,” Dvorak writes. “So what does Microsoft do? It pushes the same bad idea to the new OS. Win 8 will be a huge disappointment if Microsoft insists that these metro tiles are a good idea.”
“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,” Dvorak writes. “We are so good at this that we can identify an upside down icon. Mac takes the icon approach to interesting and useful extremes. Even document icons are miniature and identifiable shrunken images of the title page. This is extremely useful.”
Dvorak writes, “It dawned on me that, while artistically interesting, the Microsoft wall of tiles presents a navigational dilemma. It’s an out-and-out hindrance. As a user interface, it’s actually a disaster. It’s also a disaster for the Phone 7 phones.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This might be John’s record for staying on his meds.
BTW, we came to a similar conclusion back in February 2010, when we wrote regarding Windows Phone ’07: Apple offers “a better-designed UI that doesn’t continuously destroy users’ visual memory.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “NixoN” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Dvorak: High-end niche apps drive market to iPhone, the one platform users and developers can trust – August 31, 2011
When even the firmest believers are jumping ship, you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the mighty microtanic is sinking
Keep up the good work balmey!
Yes dude, well said. John Dvorak has been an avid fan but u gotta worry when even their devoted fans are jumping ship!
Come to the light, Dvorak. We have cookies.
Re: Dvorak
ven a broken clock is right twice a day
not is its digital. LOL
depends if it’s a digital clock stuck on say, “6:45” 😉
You are correct, however, it’s a 24 hour digital clock/watch..
The Apple fans have gotten too smart for hit-monger Dvorak; he’s not getting mega “hits” with anti-Apple pieces like before. So now, he’s going after hits from the Microsoft fanboys.
(But at least he can “tell it straight” this time instead of making stuff up.)
If Dvorak hates it, W8 may be a success!
Now you can see how much clearer one thinks after passing massive amounts of methane to the atmosphere. He must be relieved and clear headed. LOL
Microsoft takes blandness to a new level of retardation. Let’s face facts. WP7 like WM6 is a poorly selling platform no matter how you slice and dice it. So instead of learning to avoid mistakes Microsoft jumps in with both feet and adopts the Zune model for its next lineup of Windows bloatware.
This is the exact opposite of Apple’s strategy of slimlining the Mac OS. The Bloatfarm mirrors the thought process of its leader, Mr. Fatso Ballmer, who can’t resist a cake if it’s put in front of him. So the Bloatfarm develops more bloatware to cater to its perception of market needs which in the case of Microsoft is to get as close to nerdvana as possible.
Well what works for nerds won’t necessarily translate to the general consumer but the Bloatfarm can’t see beyond it’s admiration for its own handiwork which is to add useless bloat to software by making it as unmanageable as possible for the average user. Nerdvana? You’ve found it in Microsoft bloatware.
Facebook seems to be reading from the same playbook these days… 😉
In fairness to Microsoft, the Metro interface is optional on desktops. Not that it means Win8 will be a success. I think it’s like Mr. Creosote, and Metro will be the wafer-thin mint that finally pushes it over the edge.
It’s real simple: if you don’t like Metro, stick with Win7. There are essentially no reasons to buy Win8 if you want to turn off Metro (eg. enterprise)
Stick with Win 7?!?
I was in Best Buy the other day listening to some woman looking to buy a new laptop (she was looking at an HP). Every question she asked just screamed: “Get a Mac!”
So finally I just said to her, “really, you should get a Mac.”
“But I’ll have to learn something new.”
“Trust me the Mac OS will make more sense than Windows 7.”
I hate giving tech support to people running that clusterf— of an OS that is Windows 7.
When Dvorak writes, “It’s an out-and-out hindrance,” he might as well be talking about every interface change that Microsoft has made to Windows since they settled the look-and-feel lawsuit with Apple in 1998. The Windows OS is getting more obtuse and difficult with each iteration and Windows 8 will just be taking that difficulty to a new extreme.
Every time somebody says they can’t switch to a Mac because
“I’d have to learn something new”
You should always point out that, thanks to Microsoft’s serial kleptomania, they actually don’t have to learn something new.
I know some people who stay with XP. For mails, surf the web and printing some photos from the camera it does the job.
Greatest. Metaphor. Ever.
Circle gets the square. I salute you!
“People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.” ~ As Good As It Gets (1998).
However, I believe, the OP (Darkness) has dropped a reference (Pythonesque), more so than a metaphor.
Actually, Darkness combined elements of the simile (“it’s like Mr. Creosote”) and the metaphor (“Metro will be the wafer=thin mint that finally pushes it over the edge.”).
Know your figures of speech, and you can call yourself a language geek.
Just thought of something…
If I recall correctly, with Windows before Windows 3.x, the “windows” were actually more like “tiles.” They did not overlap and things were pretty much text-oriented.
Now (twenty years later), with Windows 8, the “tiles” are back, and things are more text-oriented.
Microsoft goes back to its roots…
Yeah, only this time there won’t be an OS to steal for their next big “innovation” after this thing crashes and burns.
I’ve been saying the same thing about the retartedness of the tile UI since it was revealed. I’ve used Windows ’07 and it’s fine I you have just 6 appps but beyond that it’s like wading through a chocolate river to find a chocolate bar.
“chocolate river”???
Ummmm… I’m afraid that substance ain’t chocolate, dude.
Right color, though.
And if it is what I think you’re afraid it is, I’m not interested in the chocolate bar anymore.
“Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!” [/Ballmer_voice]
That’s a brown Zune, not a chocolate bar.
MDN Take #1 made my day. LOL!
I dislike the tiles idea in W8, a lot. I think I will wait for the next OS from MS and also W764 is solid.
However I agree MS is lost on innovation I would like MS to succeed, really. I don’t think the Mac is the answer for everything or that Apple is prepared to deal with the whole human computer experience. Besides I don’t like a world with just one OS. Sorry Linux but it looks you are never going to lift up.
Still, OSX is mostly the OS I choose everyday to work with as an artist.
W8 is in it’s early design stage, please MS do that thing better.
Ya, but it’s way to early to tell if it will flop. Yes, WP7 hasn’t been successful but it’s had crap hardware supporting it. People might actually like W8. It’s just change…
At any rate, people can exit out of tiles and use the old UI. There are problems with things in the tile interface, but it’s pretty cool and interesting nonetheless.
a) Windows will be ‘successful’ because its Windows, we’ll never know if people actually like it. That’s what a Monopoly gets ya.
b)WP7 is an example of what MS can achieve when they enter a competitive market.
c) I’m not so sure you can ‘switch off’ the Start Screen. It’s a pretty huge part of the OS. This thing replaces the Start menu which is now GONE.
You switch back to win7 start menu. MS didn’t leave a checkbox but there is already a metro app that turns metro ofd out there lok
Art for art’s sake?
I’m wondering if, around the Redmond campus, Windows Metro is short for Metrosexual.
They’re trying to appeal to the ‘hipster’ audience because thats who they think is buying Macs.
*facepalm*
I won’t completely judge it until I have tried it myself. It is interesting to see Microsoft attempt to copy the walled garden business model for Win8, and the App Store idea for the Win8 mobile version.
When all the smoke of the recent demo and fanboy orgasms ebb away, reality will slowly trickle in. If what I read is correct, for perhaps the first time since Windows was introduced back in the 80s, backwards compatibility may be at risk. This of course is the biggest single cause of nightmares in the Windows world. But it also has led to success for Microsoft in the enterprise. If backwards compatibility means that corporations and government agencies running old legacy apps can’t use it, that may freeze out a lot of sales. We will see.
Personally, I find the Metro interface’s colors to be too garish and tiring for the eyes. As others have noted, as you try to add many apps to the interface, its original premise begins to break down in my opinion. Again, I have not tried it myself, but that is my conclusion.
I am always skeptical of demos, as they can be optimized to depart from reality. Once you add a ton of startup apps and NOD32, that near-instantaneous startup time can suddenly stretch to minutes. I have to run Windows on my Mac and startup for the Windows portion is on the order of 15-20 minutes each morning, including virus check. On the Mac side? About 40-60 seconds.
The defense rests.
Microsoft is doing it in Windows 8 because they think of people get use to the UI on their computer, then Windows Phone 7 sales will go up.
Dvorak is doing what he is doing because he’s discovered the mac community is growing and there’s now money to be made by writing positive stories about Apple.
The sad thing is he’s just now realizing this.
Windows 8 will be a huge failure for many reasons, this is but one minor one.
People have options now, and Windows is just but one of them. Windows 8 no matter how nice, will confront the fact that is not essential anymore.
Personally, I think metro is great!
To see the windows fanboys twist and squirm as they a) either defend that monstrosity or b) claim that iot will be ok because you can run applications & mods to undo parts of it (a la vista), give me no end of amusement.
The truth is that every windows version since 2K has been a significant step down and yet they keep buying them. Trust me, idiot win fanboys, as long as you keep buying them MS is unlikely to change it’s path.
So yes I think it (win8/metro) is great, and I also think it’s great they have blind rabid fanboys like dude mcfarland to help fan the flames. And I also think it’s great they have a nero-esque CEO to fiddle for them, while their empire burns.
It won’t be long now.
I think you got me confused with someone else capone.
Im a fanboy of computing technology, not any single company.
I go with what serves me best for my needs and at work i sign off on what best serves our business needs.
MS was a great provider for a lot of things for years but they have kinda lost direction, focus and the ability to respond in the market.
I don’t own stock in any technology companies so i have no financial stake in any of the players.
A year ago I had 5 workstations at home, a server, a media centers and 2 laptops all.running windows and a lone mac mini with os x 10.6.
Today I have a server running freenas (BSD), a Apple tvs, a mac mini and two macbook pros. I have 1 xeon workstation running windows 7 and Centos.
In 12 months i’ve moved almost entirely to the mac. I did that because Apple flat out makes the best hardware and softwarr in this day and age. I actually enjoy using a computer again. Its not just for work anymore. I happily gave away my windows laptops.
Ill be an Apple customer for as long as they keep delivering awesome computing devices. Thats as far as my fanboyism runs for any of them really.
Ill dump android, linux or os x the day any of them cease to provide what i need just like ive been dumping windows this last year.
I hope they all survive and make awesome products but im no devoted servant to any single one just because of a brand name.
You have tried to portray yourself here as platform-impartial; however, from quite a few of your posts over the months have painted you differently to many of us. Frankly, you can come across as someone suffering from smugness towards the “Apple fanbois”.
I don’t know your history with Apple products and your exposure to the Apple community; but not many of us are as irrationally Apple cheerleaders as the tech-pundits (and some of the so called independent/neutral thinkers/self-assured superior beings) like to dismiss us as.
Many of us see Apple NOT so much as a tech company but a cause; an inspiration and a revolution. We cheer Steve Jobs and his cause(s); because, otherwise, many of us believe progress would be severely hindered/checked at the gate by another decade or more, by the greedy (monetary profits over any other noble cause) monopoly abusers like MS/Googles of this world. Did I forget to add hypocrisy in the mix?
I feel, that’s the part you don’t get about us. Right now, i.e., you have thought to mention the various computers and OSs you have enjoyed over the years. Do you think, most of us are any different than that? Windows is ubiquitous; many of us are forced to use other OSs than Apples’ at professions and/or at academia. We CHOSE Apple products after rational considerations, and cheerfully.
Get off the high-horse that you’re above the Apple fans; tastefully, rationally, knowingly you can do much worse in your life.
Don’t be another stuck-up, get behind the revolution.
Sorry if I characterized you unfairly. Your name was in my head because, 4 posts up, you said:
“You switch back to win7 start menu. MS didn’t leave a checkbox but there is already a metro app that turns metro ofd out there lok” Which was exactly illustrated my b) point in the post.
And I would have to say I agree with krquet, you need to recognize just how expansive the experience of most Mac users is. My experience begins at punching fortan66 code (developing an early FEA in school) into Hollerith cards for a CDC Cyber-175 & 250. My first CL (terminal) work was a DEC VAX11/780 (running VMS) and then dozens of workstations (Apollo/Sun/SGI/Intergraph/…) running a myriad of OS’s (and GUI’s) after that.
I didn’t use windows until it became a reasonable OS (NT kernel), but used NT4/W2K/XP extensively. I echo krquet’s experience; almost all (^%90 of the Mac users I encounter have EXTENSIVE experience on other platforms, conversely most windows users have only cursory experience outside windows. (and yes, most claim linux experience but an old CL jockey like me, can quickly tell that they have barely a cursory understanding of it (sometimes less than that))
Apple users (for the most part) have made a conscious choice (and sometimes herculean effort) to use that platform.
I must hand it to Microsoft. They actually tried an idea that was different and did not copy Apple. Well, maybe this time they should contnued the copier to it logical conclusion. A backward and painful to use version of OS X. That way they have a fighting chance. But, Ballmer proceeded to drive Microsoft that much deeper into the grave.
Windows 8 will cause more fear to existing users and force consumers to Apple. Business will avoid it as a plaque. They will not like the marked difference. Too much change and IT freezes in it’s tracks. It will be a very cold day in he’ll for W8.
Message to Ballmer: Damn good job! Keep up the good work! Yo are the man, the myth and the rocky of the IT industry. Now go get those wheaties.
“it will be a very cold day in he’ll for W8.”
Haha, your iPhone screwing up your typing again? Is that Apple-speak? Lmao.
If the Apple/MS fanboys could all stfu for a minute, I’d like to say I enjoyed this article. I doubt it’s going to hold any weight, but luckily no ones probably going to remember it by the time the complete W8 comes out. But it’s always entertaining to see people scrambling over their own feet over “pre-beta” software.
Microsoft is going to have bigger issues than this with W8. I just can’t see the majority of us being too dumb to find an app that’s right under our noses, in big letters.
Then again, maybe you’re right and there will be a few of us out there that are actually too dumb to find our own apps on a screen that is 5 inches from our face.
Who knows? I guess we’ll just have to wait until W8 reaches beta form D:
The problem, as you carefully missed, is that Metro fails in real world usage. To gain any kind of advantage over traditional icons, individual tiles have to be much easier to locate visually. For this, they have to be much larger than regular icons.
However, that means only a few of them can fit on a single page at a time, which makes them absolutely worthless compared to traditional icons, a much greater number of which can fit on a single page while being just as easy if not easier to locate than large generic tiles with big letters.
Microsoft could make the tiles much smaller to fit a bunch of them on a single page, but then they’d be much harder to locate than icons. Metro is a slow motion trainwreck of tragicomedy. When people bring up MS Bob in the future, they’ll say “but at least it wasn’t Metro”.
If I was Steve Ballmer, what I’d do right now is hastily drop it like a bad– I mean drop the desktop interface. Yeah, that’s what I’d do! Death to legacy! TILES SHALL PAVE THE ROAD TO VICTORY!
You hear me, Redmond?
When I first saw a prototype demo of Windows Phone 7, my comment was that it looked like Microsoft finally took the hint and hired a team of designers. Unfortunately, because this is new to them, they hired only graphic designers and no user experience designers.
In Apple-speak, Microsoft hired VI (visual interface) and no HI (human interface) designers.
THE DEATH KNELL HATH BEEN SPOKEN! The demise of Microsoft hath begun. A Titanic, going down.
W8? Fits Mickysoft perfectly!
Just you W8…
He’s right. I’ve been looking at many screen shots of the interface on Windows phone thinking someone will one day explain how you are meant to know where everything is. I waited and the first person to mention it is Dvorak who reveals there is no way to know where everything is.
The Windows 8 UI looks to me like the opening of “The Brady Bunch”.
the UI looks nice and original to me
this stuff of the icons being better is total crap
you have 100’s of program on your pc. looking at the one you need by pattern recognition is the worst way to find it. this is why people invented alphabetical order, or chapters.
try open the application folder as icons and look at the program you need. or you remember the position of it or it will take ages to find it. icons are good when they are limited. exactly as tiles. it made sense for the phone when apple introduced it because programs were limited and space also. now I think it is a old concept. the way of MS is better. and I don’t couldn’t care less about apple vs MS.
I played with a beta version for mobile last night on a friends HTC…. let me tell you that: this tiles interface, as impressive as it may seem in the online videos, is very difficult to use for an average non savvy user and once you get deeper you’ll find out a very, VERY bad iOS copy…
The verdict is that w8 is an Epic Fail OS!
I even gave my friend my iP4 to play around and he was like: ” I’m switching next year!” Case Closed…