This article is spot on. I love the metro UI but in its current form it's not quite ready for the desktop. Some things that were easy to accomplish before are now made more difficult. The removal of the start button is one. Having to click the corner of the screen to access the Start Screen is frustrating. The target to click is essentially smaller which requires more precision and effort to hit.
Closing apps is also more difficult. On the desktop you just click the big red button and the window disappears but in metro you're required to click the top of the screen and drag the app to the bottom of the screen. It's a lot more work and it's frustrating.
The interesting thing about all these frustrations on the PC is that on a tablet they'd be great! Metro is a great tablet UI. It's optimized for touch. This is clear so why force it onto the desktop? This clearly demonstrates the difference between Microsoft and Apple's philosophy on user experience. Microsoft is cannibalizing the desktop user experience to realize a utopian vision of one OS to run on all devices. If Windows 8 on tablets is a massive success then maybe to MIcrosoft that would have made it all worthwhile. People could always go back to windows 7 on the desktop if they prefer to. Maybe this is Microsoft realizing that we are indeed in a Post-PC era and it needs to succeed in this space at all costs!
"The target to click is essentially smaller which requires more precision and effort to hit."
It's actually the opposite, the virtual target area extends beyond the screen to the bottom and left and that area has no boundaries. In other words, you can move your cursor in the right direction and if you keep moving you are guaranteed to hit that area. Experienced users will just 'flick' their cursor in the general direction knowing they are going to hit it.
Comments
This article is spot on. I love the metro UI but in its current form it's not quite ready for the desktop. Some things that were easy to accomplish before are now made more difficult. The removal of the start button is one. Having to click the corner of the screen to access the Start Screen is frustrating. The target to click is essentially smaller which requires more precision and effort to hit.
Closing apps is also more difficult. On the desktop you just click the big red button and the window disappears but in metro you're required to click the top of the screen and drag the app to the bottom of the screen. It's a lot more work and it's frustrating.
The interesting thing about all these frustrations on the PC is that on a tablet they'd be great! Metro is a great tablet UI. It's optimized for touch. This is clear so why force it onto the desktop? This clearly demonstrates the difference between Microsoft and Apple's philosophy on user experience. Microsoft is cannibalizing the desktop user experience to realize a utopian vision of one OS to run on all devices. If Windows 8 on tablets is a massive success then maybe to MIcrosoft that would have made it all worthwhile. People could always go back to windows 7 on the desktop if they prefer to. Maybe this is Microsoft realizing that we are indeed in a Post-PC era and it needs to succeed in this space at all costs!
"The target to click is essentially smaller which requires more precision and effort to hit."
It's actually the opposite, the virtual target area extends beyond the screen to the bottom and left and that area has no boundaries. In other words, you can move your cursor in the right direction and if you keep moving you are guaranteed to hit that area. Experienced users will just 'flick' their cursor in the general direction knowing they are going to hit it.
- Just press the Win key on the keyboard. - Move to upper left, in list of apps right click and select close.