I made some quick mock ups of an actual home screen background that some users have been clamoring about. (AKA background behind the tiles, not in them)
In short, this would have been hard to implement well, consistently, and would've been a bit complicated. Least that's what I think. I used 3 different backgrounds.
First, black:
No need to explain
All tiles except for xbm are faded a bit. Already we run into a problem: tiles like the xbm tile that just need to be seen.
We can make all tiles transparent, but it really hurts the usability of some of them
I think this could look great, but the totally transparent tiles and the visible tiles really clash. I think tiles give some uniformity and a sense of order.
Also, works best with darker backgrounds, unless MS figures out a way to change the color/brightness of the logos.
Looks fine but you can barely see the background.
Just the themed tiles are faded. This doesn't look too bad, but again, I feel like its clashing. No good.
Again, except the contrast is even bigger/worse.
Making all of the tiles that I could transparent. Yeah, it's more the same as the above. Now imagine tiles that just use pictures like news apps. pictures on top of another picture? I'm not sure how that would look. I feel like it would look terrible.
Looks fine. Can't see the background (image).
slightly transparent themed tiles. Not too bad. A bit better than above because of the darker background.
no comment
no comment
Really, the best of the above combinations looked decent. I feel like it would be really hard to implement well. Sure, maybe MS could give the user total control on each individual tile, but that would be way complicated, I think that would turn off most users/most people wouldn't bother, oh wait and it looks terrible and/or inconsistent.
I can't believe I spent an hour doing this.
On second thought looking back at this, I'm seriously wondering why people would want to make their tiles transparent. The whole point behind WP8 and W8 is the tiles. It's in their marketing, it's what makes WP stand out. Really, making all (or a fair share of the) tiles transparent (anywhere between 1-100%) is nonsensical. Transparent tiles would make WP8 a whole different OS (on the surface).
In short, this would have been hard to implement well, consistently, and would've been a bit complicated. Least that's what I think. I used 3 different backgrounds.
First, black:
No need to explain
All tiles except for xbm are faded a bit. Already we run into a problem: tiles like the xbm tile that just need to be seen.
We can make all tiles transparent, but it really hurts the usability of some of them
I think this could look great, but the totally transparent tiles and the visible tiles really clash. I think tiles give some uniformity and a sense of order.
Also, works best with darker backgrounds, unless MS figures out a way to change the color/brightness of the logos.
Looks fine but you can barely see the background.
Just the themed tiles are faded. This doesn't look too bad, but again, I feel like its clashing. No good.
Again, except the contrast is even bigger/worse.
Making all of the tiles that I could transparent. Yeah, it's more the same as the above. Now imagine tiles that just use pictures like news apps. pictures on top of another picture? I'm not sure how that would look. I feel like it would look terrible.
Looks fine. Can't see the background (image).
slightly transparent themed tiles. Not too bad. A bit better than above because of the darker background.
no comment
no comment
Really, the best of the above combinations looked decent. I feel like it would be really hard to implement well. Sure, maybe MS could give the user total control on each individual tile, but that would be way complicated, I think that would turn off most users/most people wouldn't bother, oh wait and it looks terrible and/or inconsistent.
I can't believe I spent an hour doing this.
On second thought looking back at this, I'm seriously wondering why people would want to make their tiles transparent. The whole point behind WP8 and W8 is the tiles. It's in their marketing, it's what makes WP stand out. Really, making all (or a fair share of the) tiles transparent (anywhere between 1-100%) is nonsensical. Transparent tiles would make WP8 a whole different OS (on the surface).
Last edited:
but this reminds me why i don't like pictures behind the tiles. it just looks bad and i don't even see the picture at all. this just makes me glad msft went the route they went
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram