Custom UI for windows mobile

[SonOfDad]

Silly idea. It isn't Android and nor should it try to be.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Considering how "Android like" Windows 10 mobile is compared to Windows Phone 8.1 it's a silly bloody post by you

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

Android is awful and uninspiried...I hope we don't see WIndows being butchered.

 

[bhtkb]

If I remember correctly, the circular loading animations have been with Microsoft since Windows Mobile 2003, and has been improved through Windows Mobile 6.5.3... which puts Microsoft ahead of Android by at least three years. Even the hamburger menus are reminiscent of the old mobile start page in Windows Mobile. In fact, Windows Mobile had a huge market share peaking at 2007 - which was the year when Android and iOS were announced.

Honestly, I haven't used Windows Mobile before it turned to WP8, therefore I don't know how they employed circular loading animations there, and I'm not too much interested who first conventionalized them. But, I'm pretty familiar with them on PCs, websites, iOS, android etc. anywhere; and the dots that slide-in and out the screen was completely new to me with WP8. And I really liked them, they were useful enough to tell me something is loading without getting in my way thanks to nonblocking UI, and they were elegant and stylish. I just don't find these with circular ones. And the hamburger menus are also not so new, I know. But they have been heavily adapted by app and websites designer in the latest 4-5 years, even it became like a de-facto way of navigation now. But, due to several disadvantages they are started to be avoided by mobile app designers now. I don't know the case for web or pc apps, but mobile app ui designers are changing their designs to avoid them if possible. The funny thing is these new changes are mostly borrowed from WP8 metro-style design. I would expect from Microsft to iterate and improve their metro-style design to the users' needs instead of adapting some other UI/UX. But I must also admit that the best implementation of this hamburger is done by Microsoft

Anyways, I guess it all boils down to your saying:

It's always risky to choose between lowering* a company's standards to the expectations of the customers and setting a new standard which the customers will look for.

 

[Steve Thackery]

Android is awful and uninspiried...I hope we don't see WIndows being butchered.

Too late by far! It's already been butchered and is now pretty much an Android look-alike with live tiles.

 

[michail71]

I would agree. But so far without android's benefits as well.

 

[SonOfDad]

Too late by far! It's already been butchered and is now pretty much an Android look-alike with live tiles.

The live tiles will be next to go. "Umm yes we've found the reason our market share hasn't increased is due to people liking the Windows 3.1 look of other OS's...."

Come use windows 10 mobile, all the benefits of Android except for the apps.

 

[michail71]

To be hoinest, UI is beautiful now with w10, so I don't have a need to play and change it.
But on Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 UI was big suffering.

How so? It mostly looks the same but is buggier and has less synergy amongst it's apps. It's a desktop OS jammed onto a phone and somewhere along the way they decided phone features no longer mattered. The dark theme was butchered and no longer looks as elegant. It has turned into more of an app launcher. Every time I roll back to 8.1 I feel like I just removed a virus from my phone.

Yes, there are a couple steps forwards on some things and thousands of steps backwards everywhere else.

 

[a5cent]

^ I like that the UI in W10M is denser, that fonts are generally smaller, and that font size is adjustable. That's great. Keyboard is even better than before. I struggle to find more positive things to say about the UI however. It does at least add a standard way to navigate between diverse parts of an app (hamburger menu), but I would have prefered an approach focused on providing the most innovate / streamlined / consistent solution for smartphones, rather than one focused on iOS and Android conformity.

I can see how some might find W10M's UI aesthetically more pleasing, but in terms of usability it has lost its elegance, consistency and flow.

 

[firdausikal]

No, please. But I want the apps list have a grid mode.
sent from Nokia 730

 

[SonOfDad]

Keyboard is even better than before.

How so? The keyboard still lags behind Windows 8.1 and given Windows 10 & Windows 10 mobile are supposed to be the same OS I'm not sure why they don't share the same keyboard

 

[sumton]

we as humans like to change our cloths a lot, our phones should have similar behavior, Microsoft should pick 4 or 5 of their top designers to create theme manager with 4 or 5 themes for tiles, tiles will remain live tiles but with multiple skins/cloths to choose from :grin:

 

[michail71]

^ I like that the UI in W10M is denser, that fonts are generally smaller, and that font size is adjustable. That's great. Keyboard is even better than before. I struggle to find more positive things to say about the UI however. It does at least add a standard way to navigate between diverse parts of an app (hamburger menu), but I would have prefered an approach focused on providing the most innovate / streamlined / consistent solution for smartphones, rather than one focused on iOS and Android conformity.

I can see how some might find W10M's UI aesthetically more pleasing, but in terms of usability it has lost its elegance, consistency and flow.

I really like the UI density as well, although in some spots it got too airy. I also like the scaling added on to the last build. I just get the feeling they could have kept what was good and evolved it. Rather than what seems a ground up rewrite that left much synergy and maturity behind.

But what it comes down to is I can much more easily call, text, email, navigate and run Bluetooth audio in WP8.1. And I'm not talking about bugs or slowness. In Windows 10 it feel like all that has become a multi-app chore with many more clicks fewer features. Very old fashioned, kind of what you would expect if someone ran Linux on a phone. I'm kinda scratching my head trying to figure out why so many people are accepting of that.

 

[michail71]

Here is another example of something that was much more fluid in WP8.1. In 8.1 you can search Cortana to get a Place/Location card that you can use for calling, directions, navigation, Websites, etc., which can be saved and pinned to the start screen. Now in Windows 10 you have to search the map and click on the map pin to get this same card, which also looks a bit thrown together. Much like Bing vision this useful feature was pulled out of Cortana. I want to search Cortana for all things, not a camera app or map app.

 

[IEhrgeizI]

Late to reply but yes. Been trying a lot of Android phones of late

 

[IEhrgeizI]

But still u are using android

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Late to reply but yes. Been trying a lot of Android phones of late