Groene is the lead designer of Microsoft's Surface line and has been involved with several design choices that have been well received. His expanded role including the design of Windows could help end some of the frustrations people have expressed regarding the inconsistent design of Windows 10.
While it’s unclear what role Groene has played in the design of Windows at this point, there does seem to be a shift regarding UI design and Windows at Microsoft. Panay being placed in charge of Windows, along with Groene’s new role, could iron out inconsistencies in the operating system and improve the user interface. Panay teased a new Windows 10 UI earlier this year and Microsoft confirmed last month that some elements of Windows 10X will come to Windows 10. We’ll have to wait and see to find out what Microsoft has in plan for the future of Windows.
Sean Endicott
I do not usually comment on issues of design, but in Windows 10 the situation is becoming ridiculous. There are no less than four different styles for Start Menu tiles alone:
- flat icon with the system-wide accent color as background (all Win32 apps, as well as most Store apps)
- flat icon with a custom background color (in most cases a shade of blue, like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, old Microsoft Edge)
- Fluent Design icon with solid blue background (most modern Windows apps, with some glaring exceptions, like Store, Calculator)
- Fluent Design icon with solid dark grey background (Office apps, To Do, Sticky Notes and most recently Skype)
There are many exceptions and inconsistencies inside these broad categories as well – without even considering which apps support Live Tiles. Teams for example has a custom purple background to match the main icon color – a questionable choice, since it lowers the contrast between the icon and the background and makes it harder to spot. The same contrast issues plague predominantly blue Fluent Design icons – I don’t understand why these don’t respect the system accent color. I find the dark grey background the ugliest, going against the idea of a colorful and lively Start Menu.
I feel like, as with Microsoft Edge, Microsoft does not have the focus and commitment to work on projects, to deliver a proper product, instead of chasing after short term trends and trying to appease vocal complainers. The Start Menu and Live Tiles were a wonderful concept – I do not agree with people arguing that they only belong on mobile – but Microsoft failed to support and enhance them for the desktop – and now the concept is silently being appropriated by Apple in the upcoming iOS update.
At this point, I would prefer that Microsoft adds a couple controls for the Start Menu design, at the very least to let users override the background color set by developers. There are apps for this purpose currently in the Store, and I am more tempted to install one by the day.
Post a Comment