My concept UI for Windows 8.1 or 9.0

[Christian Del Rosario]

First, Microsoft doesn't specify that the hardware buttons must be capacitive. Some Samsung WP8 devices have a non-capacitive start button, so gestures wouldn't work on them. Second, although capacitive hardware buttons could be built that recognize gestures, the ones currently on WP8 devices do not.

So, for your concept you have two choices, both of which require adjustments to the hardware chassis specification. Either mandate that a) hardware buttons should be removed or b) that the hardware buttons must be capacitive and support gestures.

oh. thanks for that information. honestly, i haven't seen a samsung wp in action. i only see htc and nokia wp's in my country. maybe samsung wps are hiding. i checked the samsung phones and surprised the neo has physical button. hehe yeah but maybe in the near future they might require capacitative touch buttons on their phones just like they mandate the camera button. that would depend if it's going to be more usable or not. what do you think?

 

[psudotechzealot]

But I must say, this is in my top five of WP8.1 concepts on youtube. Thanks for sharing Christian Del Rosario.

 

[DonnaxNL]

Most of the features listed are never gonna happen, but that doesn't mean those aren't good ideas. Some things 'are too much', Windows Phone must be simple and usable.

I like the multi-windowing, that a great feature to marketing on, just like what they do with 'iPad vs Windows 8'.

Windows Phone still needs a notification center, Live Tiles only aren't clear. Lately I didn't knew someone message me, and I hadn't pin the app or on the Lockscreen. There must me a lear list of all notifications.

 

[Giovanni Marin]

Very nice work.. The ideas a re great but they need adjustments to work well with the OS.. I would like to see a notification center from the left like the MeeGo OS (RIP)

 

[snowmutt]

Love a lot of what you have done here. It may be a little advanced for WP8.1, but a ton of these concepts would be a great idea for 9.0.

 

[KllR007]

I love it !!! I wish to one day WP will be like this...

 

[nasellok]

By far the best concept ive seen - Im still on android (crappy 2 year contract with Verizon.....Dec 2013 contract is up, and I will hopefully getting the 1020 Verizon variant)...........some of these unified gestures that are on Windows 8 would be great to see on the WP OS - would unify the experience between tablet, PC, and phone. Swipe down to close is a MUST, and I love the quick launch gesture control from the soft keys, and the notification center, and the interactive tiles, and the folders......just love, love love the concept, and really hope that MS listens and does things like this to really make the WIndows Phone UI stand out. What it really needs though, is HDMI out compatibility - not everyone has DLNA, or play to on their older TV's - I would like to be able to plug my phone into my TV, and stream media onto the big screen, same way other OS's can.

 

[Jazmac]

Loved it.

 

[iHusky]

Great work friend, I want see this in WP 8.1 it`s so beautifull

 

[Christian Del Rosario]

Most of the features listed are never gonna happen, but that doesn't mean those aren't good ideas. Some things 'are too much', Windows Phone must be simple and usable.

I like the multi-windowing, that a great feature to marketing on, just like what they do with 'iPad vs Windows 8'.

Windows Phone still needs a notification center, Live Tiles only aren't clear. Lately I didn't knew someone message me, and I hadn't pin the app or on the Lockscreen. There must me a lear list of all notifications.

yes, sometimes i feel some of them are not gonna happen. but i hope they get the picture

But I must say, this is in my top five of WP8.1 concepts on youtube. Thanks for sharing Christian Del Rosario.

wow thanks! i'm glad you like it.

Love a lot of what you have done here. It may be a little advanced for WP8.1, but a ton of these concepts would be a great idea for 9.0.

yes, i agree. at first, it was only supposed to be 8.1 but i felt many of them might be overkill, so i posted it as 8.1 / 9.0

I love it !!! I wish to one day WP will be like this...

yes, me too i love windows phone and i can't wait to see it mature.

By far the best concept ive seen - Im still on android (crappy 2 year contract with Verizon.....Dec 2013 contract is up, and I will hopefully getting the 1020 Verizon variant)...........some of these unified gestures that are on Windows 8 would be great to see on the WP OS - would unify the experience between tablet, PC, and phone. Swipe down to close is a MUST, and I love the quick launch gesture control from the soft keys, and the notification center, and the interactive tiles, and the folders......just love, love love the concept, and really hope that MS listens and does things like this to really make the WIndows Phone UI stand out. What it really needs though, is HDMI out compatibility - not everyone has DLNA, or play to on their older TV's - I would like to be able to plug my phone into my TV, and stream media onto the big screen, same way other OS's can.

yes, i really hope to see this type of unification between desktop and phone os on the ui level. i've seen many requests from various wp users (such as notificaton center and volume profile) and this is some sort of compiled solution. thanks for loving the concept. i also agree on the HDMI out. makes the os more usable.

 

[Verkunder]

Video was well done, but all those swipes are potential headaches.

 

[Divair]

There are some great ideas within your concept, but as a whole, I feel it strays a bit too far from the flat and simple design of WP.

 

[Christian Del Rosario]

Video was well done, but all those swipes are potential headaches.

thank you for appreciating my video. with regards to the swipes, i believe current win8 users will immediately become familiarized with the setup. for new users, i think it will be solved by a well-explained tutorial during the initial phone setup and during the first open of the app/page. example, when visiting the task manager for the first time, the user should be welcomed by a simple tutorial on how swiping will close the apps, close multiple apps or create a splitscreen.

There are some great ideas within your concept, but as a whole, I feel it strays a bit too far from the flat and simple design of WP.

thanks! i intentionally placed colors on the ui to show that the color scheme of this ui can be customized to become similar to the desktop os. i was planning to put a startscreen and notification screen image that has single accent color but i ran of time. i have read that they are building wp9 from scratch so maybe this is possible to happen.

 

[halamadridkimi]

very well made concept, i really hope those were on next big update

 

[Forc3]

Nice concept.... but, too much clutter, way too many gestures, I somehow became a headache by just viewing at the startscreen really (no joke), sry. Still ist an interesting concept.

 

[Jazmac]

Watched the video again and I've seen a more than a few of these videos and NEVER have I seen one as exciting as this one. Something I have never said about other concept videos but I will say about this one, I hope Microsoft devs and Balmer sees it. They have got to adopt the lions share of these concepts for Windows Phone 8 if possible. Windows Phone 9 is a must. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[kamikaze80]

not practical, most of these features would be absolutely tiny on a typical smartphone screen. and many of them go back towards the icon/folder paradigm that we're trying to get away from. and what is the obsession with 1080p? smartphone screens already have the highest resolution of any device, it is pointless to raise the resolution further in a phone form factor.

 

[dukrem]

Amazing concept, I absolutely love it, and if I had a choice between this and the current WP8.0 I would definitely choose yours. Here are my (detailed) thoughts on the concept:
Things I liked:

• homescreen windows 8 feel - it gives a new refreshing, more visually appealing look to WP, which I think is starting to age in its design. The single flat colour of WP gets tedious over time, wheras I haven't found the same with windows 8. My other issue with flat colour is that it is harder to identify icons for specific things because they all look similar, it simply does not provide enough contrast to provide the visual memory of where things are on the screen. I know some people like consistency and there could be a flat colour option for those folks, but I think the majority prefer their icons to stand out.
• Folders
• New 'all apps' screen is much more flexible
• Bing universal search is awesome in windows 8.1, lets hope it makes it into WP8.1
• Independent vol controls - I think everybody agrees we need this
• Task manager improvements - ability to close apps and those other new options down the bottom
• Best notification centre concept I've ever seen (but flashlight should definitely be a quick setting)
• Love the lockscreen, though I think quick launch adds unnecessary complexity

Things I disliked/need improving:

• Too many ways to multitask becomes confusing (swipe from left edge, swipe up from back arrow, hold back arrow). I would prefer just these 2: hold back arrow, and make tapping an already open app on start screen resume that app if it is already running (instead of re-opening it).
• Swipe down to close is not as easy on a tall narrow screen as it is on a wide, short screen on a tablet, it would be better just to close apps from the task manager
• Split screen - only phablets would be able to use it and it would require a massive WP market share before developers would start making apps that work with this
• All the capacitive swipe up gestures seem overly complicated and just replicates functionality already there. For example, if you arrange icons well on your start screen those quick shortcuts aren't that helpful, voice commands are already easily accessible and would be better served by having an always on driving mode (eg. say "lumia" to activate voice commands, followed by the command "lumia, text joe")

I know a lot of users have been quite negative about a lot of the ideas, but remember that a lot of WP users are here because they like the minimalist design and don't want to see that change. Personally I think WP is pretty bad at the moment, it is part of the windows ecosystem and that is why I have one, but it is the weakest link in the chain. I would much prefer a more windows RT like OS with a redesign for the mobile form factor, which is exactly what you've done.

To the users who would prefer the notifications to only be accessible via swiping to the left of the homescreen, here is why that is a bad idea:
1. Including quick settings in a notification centre is a complete waste of time unless the notification centre is accessible from anywhere. For example, if I already have my music playlist queued but realise my bluetooth is not on, I should not have to leave the app to turn it on. Similarly, when independent app volume controls get implemented, it would be nice to be able to access that without leaving the app. Other settings like wifi and flashlight (and music controls) should also be accessible from anywhere rather than having to return to the start screen. This is 50% of the usefullness of a notification centre, why limit it by only being able to access it from the start screen.

2. Things like email, facebook, twitter, IM programs, etc do not have toast notifications (or those that are there are unreliable), and even if present, these are easily missed. Having a notifications centre only accessible from the start screen would barely give more functionality than the start screen itself. The user would still have to exit their current app, interrupting what they are doing to see if they have any new emails, IMs, facebook messages, etc, this concept doesnt really add anything to the current start screen functionality. What WOULD be useful is if the user could swipe into the notification centre from anywhere in the OS, instantly checking whether there are any new emails, etc without interrupting their current activity.

3. My 3rd point is simple: if a user wants to only access notifications from their start screen, they can still choose to do so even if the capability is there to access the notifications from anywhere, while users who want more flexibility would be able to get it. Just because you won't use a feature doesn't mean it should be hobbled for everyone else.

4. It would provide a single consistent place to have sharing options, similar to what the charms bar does for windows 8.

 

[qudahamohammad]

what's the point of live tiles if there's a notification center?

I do not want to sound mean for the guy who created the concepts but Windows Phone would be gesture based if these concepts were actually implemented which increases it's learning curve.

now to my point, who in the right mind would look at live tiles when there's a notification center?

people with iOS stopped looking at the notification number beside most apps because they have a notification center.

I think that, that's the dilemma that Microsoft is facing. making a notification center would remove the point of looking at live tiles. wouldn't it?

 

[a5cent]

what's the point of live tiles if there's a notification center?

This dispute has been resolved. A notification centre isn't as important on WP as on other platforms, like you said due to the live tiles, but there are exactly two scenarios where a notification centre would help:

• After a few seconds, toast notifications disappear never to be seen again. Nothing that is of importance beyond the immediate moment should be communicated via a toast notification, but not all apps conform to that rule. A mechanism to collect those toast notifications ensures nobody misses any.
• Those who use a lot of apps that support tile notifications may not want to pin all of those apps to the start screen. Particularly those that are only rarely used. A mechanism to collect the tile notifications for apps which aren't pinned would help free the start screen from rarely used "clutter" and ensure nobody misses any.

Any WP notification centre needs to aim primarily at solving those two issues. IMHO any solution that goes beyond fixing exactly those two issues is replicating what live tiles already do and is probably a bad idea.