10 design improvements in Windows 10
I’ve had a few weeks to soak in the new Windows 10 official build. Here’s my short list of neat things that might be overlooked by the average user, but contribute to an overall vastly improved experience from Windows 8.2.
Blur effects are back
Win7 had blurry bits in the “Aero” UI theme, but those were lost in a wave of flatness. On the heels of OSX Yosemite, Windows now has several panels that have revived this aesthetic. As I’ve said in my previous article on Blurriness, I believe this is just showing off hardware acceleration — a feat that is still too difficult for web apps to achieve. Thus, native apps will be one step ahead of the web and have a premium feel.
New icons
All the icons have been redesigned to be internally consistent, brighter, and cleaner. They look nice, especially against the new black task bar.
Onboarding
I might be wrong, but I believe this is the first Windows release to feature an onboarding app. It covers what is new, and some back to basics information to help new users.
Sleek borders — colored headers
The old 5px wide border is dead. I’ve disliked that thick band of needless UI cruft for some time now, and am overjoyed to see it reduced down to nothing. The drag target is still there, but the chrome is gone. We saw precursors to this move in apps like Visual Studio, which had dropped the border down to 1px many builds ago. I also designed the SourceTree installer in this style a year ago. Active windows get a subtle blue pixel glow, but that’s it. Less is more.
Headers for Universal apps can take on a custom brand color. Designs look intentional, integrated and hand-crafted. I’m loving this new direction.
Settings
Settings has been completely redesigned with new icons and groupings. I imagine a ton of research went into simplifying this view. It is also responsive! What a difference.
Photos
The default photo viewer on Windows has always sucked. It was slow to load, lacked basic functions, and looked like crap. The redesigned photos app is gorgeous and functional. It doesn’t have every single feature you could imagine needing, but it nails the basics. It is clearly a solid foundation upon which to build better and better experiences.
Edge
The new Edge browser isn’t just a smart branding move to distance itself from the toxic Internet Explorer. Edge represents a new way to build apps. You can build a native Windows Store app using the Edge runtime as a platform and get published. The potential for a Universal app in a web framework is huge. We’re going to see a lot more developers care about supporting Edge.
Tablet/Desktop mode
How do you make a touch interface live side-by-side with a point-and-click world? Just make a toggle. I’ve been using this switch on my Surface Pro and the transition is seamless. If you have two monitors, you can still make Universal apps go full screen on another monitor. The window snapping functions really seem more powerful now that Universal apps can play nice with all your old apps.
Charms are dead – the hamburger icon reigns supreme
Win8 Universal apps were designed to be full screen touch experience. Swipes from the edge of the screen brought in charms and other functions, that could not easily translate to a desktop experience. Every Universal app would need a new home for charms.
For better or worse, many web apps are standardizing on the three horizontal bars to represent a menu containing app actions. Google’s Material Design adopted the hamburger icon, so why not Windows?
Kids these days don’t know what a floppy disc is, but they know what it does. I think that in years to come, the hamburger icon will just be known as the drawer of consolidated app actions.
Cortana
Anything masquerading as an AI will always fall short of my expectations. I know too much about the limits to suspend my disbelief. Death to false AI.
The best is yet to come
Windows 10 is the “last version of windows.” The new Linux-style update system will allow for incremental updates. If anything feels rough around the edges, just remember that we are seeing the foundation of a much larger vision.
The new design direction is solid — I’m excited to see what’s next!
