Is "Metro" dying already?

[Chris_Kez]

Many good points in there, and I'm always happy to see well-reasoned posts. I still don't like the look of this new app, nor am I convinced that it couldn't benefit from or at the very least be amenable to a metro experience.

 

[dkp23]

Here is the irony in all this. All the people that love the "new" design actually love the iphone facebook app design. So essentially, it isnt new, just new to windows phone.

 

[Rich White]

Metro is evolving indeed. Let's see what the app looks like on a 1080P 7" tablet. You can be sure Microsoft did.They are developing write once standards and templates for all devices for Blue

Nice article here on the new Facebook app

New Windows Phone Facebook app reveals 1080P resolution support?

New Windows Phone Facebook app reveals 1080P resolution support? | WMPoweruser

 

[baaahthesheep]

I don't think so. If anything, the whole flat design seems to be on the rise, something that I definitely knew was seeing before coming across this article:

The Flattening of Design

 

[peacefulberry]

I hope they keep it, and also I would love if they could find a way to implement maximum screen real estate while using the metro style.

 

[ah06]

There is still too much credit to Android/iOS for this design paradigm. Lets nip this in the bud.

The FB app navigation paradigm has NOTHING to do with iOS or Android. Android and iOS both initially used icons, toolbars and tabs (TouchWiz still does).

The new FB app with its button and sidebar was a Path app innovation if I remember correctly. Google too innovated a fair bit in the new age app design (though unrelated to Android, they were doing it for their own apps which were complex and not for consistency with Android) and FB quickly proliferated it. The sidebar is an app UI innovation that came from grassroots developers for apps that have a LOT of features and which would otherwise have very ungainly navigation UIs.

So what you are seeing in this FB app is a Metrofied version of FB's own paradigm. Not iOS's, Not Android's. As everyone can see, this app has no tabs, no icons as such at the bottom. If anything, it bears a remarkable resemblance in concept to the Touch/Mobile Facebook website.

Facebook brought this design TO Android and iOS and now it is coming to WP. So this is FB coming to WP. Not MS pulling in Android/iOS design to WP.

When Instagram finally comes to WP, will we complain that an Android/iOS "app" is invading WP? No Instagram merely brought their app to the various platforms in order of popularity.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this isn't iOS/Android design. This is FB design, the design FB would take it everywhere it goes. Since MS made the app, its been Metrofied to fit better with the rest of the UI, all of which is a great thing

Finally, to people still on the fence, I'd like to pose a simple question. If you actually try to think the navigation of a complex app through, you will realise no "heavy" or "complex" app will embrace Metro in all its Pivoty, Panoramy, Large Texty goodness. Pivots serve the same purpose in WP as tabs did in old Android and the bottom toolbar buttons do in iOS, they move you from one category or area to the next.

Now try and segment the various parts of FB into pivots and panoramas, start counting them. FB is so heavy and so feature rich that you would have almost 20 adjacent pivots and side scrolling hell if you did not want to combine pivots with toolbar buttons and categories embedded in menus (Which is an ugly hack some heavy metro apps have been using). The side scrolling pivots and panoramas work great when there are small number of logical segments but they cannot replace the FB or Gmail Sidebar (Similary the *default* MS made WP email app uses pivots for the various labels WITHIN Inbox but does not do so for folders, it chooses a menu list instead. There is a reason why the previous FB app design needed a drastic changed, there was no way all those things could be crammed into the traditional old style Metro paradigm

8 of 10 - Understanding Pivots and Panoramic view controls
Like a Boss! Understanding the Difference between Panorama and Pivot in Windows Phone - Canadian Mobile Developers' Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Pano versus Pivot: Windows Phone Design Days content available
Windows Phone 7 - Part #5: Panorama and Pivot controls
Blink's Guide to Metro Design | Windows Phone 7 (This is excellent for non developers too)

Links like those meant for developers actually show that Metro is not actually evolving either, all this was planned from the very beginning. In that sense, there has been no 180 or 90 turn. They clearly say when you have more pivots than 6-7, you need to split it into a list view first. Which is sort of what the FB sidebar is in a FB/Metro compromise.

If I was to suggest here that Metro has deficiencies and cannot handle all design cases, I'd probably get labelled a troll but if you trawl through MS's own documentation for developers. They are pretty self-aware about the strengths and limits of Metro design and make affordances everywhere for its weaknesses.

WP/Metro are very new and very exciting but sometimes the radically different navigational architecture really leaves developers scratching their heads with complex apps. I for one, cannot even begin to imagine how a "true" Metro FB app would function whilst maintaining any sort of semblance with the actual FB mobile properties such as m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com.

 

[AngryNil]

Nope. "Metro" needs to expand past a strict oversized header, app bar and pivot / panorama body content. Having played with a Z10 recently, there are some UI paradigms there which Windows Phone simply isn't attempting. I'd like to see some new base templates from Microsoft and more branching off so apps can look unique, beautiful and functional once again. No template is one-size-fits-all.

EDIT: missed ah06's comment. It's spot on.

 

[tungha]

Modern UI also based on the flat design, which is quite famous on iOS with the flipboard app

 

[Jazmac]

I don't think its anywhere near dying. MS is keeping its design language in tact but clearly ModernUI is its own method of delivering content.

To me, some things simply don't work well in the full on ModernUI format. At least not for me. Case in point, reading epub books. So far, from the designs I've seen, it simply doesn't look natural. I don't like the idea of reading a wall of text. Its not the way my eyes focus. Which is how epub readers present themselves in this design language.

ModernUI is great to get me TO the content, but once I'm there I want a single page with a page turn. Or two pages side by side with a page turn. At least something akin to how MasterDevs designed The Verge app.

 

[Geddeeee]

'Metro' or to give it the proper name: Modern UI, is beautiful.
It pretty much works flawlessly. Much better than any other phone OS. This shouldn't be a point for debate, it just IS.

Even the supposedly 'superior' Android has copied the WP8 look and feel with one of it's launchers.

Dead??? Far from it!!!! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!!!
If anyone thinks that, or doesn't have faith that this is the future, please feel free to switch away from WP8. We'll see you in 6 months when you realise how truly awful the alternatives are.....

 

[phing77]

not every app look great on Metro, i mean this Facebook app doesn't use iOS or Android interface after all. It is using its own design language and i totally support that.
and sory 4 me bad enlgish

 

[charming_arpit]

How can the Metro be dead when Apple itself is trying to push Flat interface into the iOS 7. This thread is absurd!

 

[FinancialP]

There is still too much credit to Android/iOS for this design paradigm. Lets nip this in the bud.

Sorry, I don't mean to quote your whole post but you convey my thoughts exactly.

I'm loving reading this thread.

 

[12Danny123]

Of course not!!!!. Note that the Metro UI comes in many forms. different fonts and different fonts sizes and also the title can be small or big or the title can do a panorama scroll while some. e.g Wpcentral app stays in the same position while scrolling. Those are all different forms of the Metro UI. but they all follow one principle..... the apps and other stuff etc. are flat and 2D, scroll left or right and also scroll up and down in that category. the Facebook Beta App. while may look metro like other apps. it follows the same principles as other metro apps do with a flat design.

 

[nessinhaw]

what pplz are still complaining about?

the old app sure looks heavy metrofied, it does look beautiful BUT it wasn't really functional! yes that banner image is cool but it just wasted space! like when i open an FB app, i hope the focus to be my news feed, not a banner with images from my album and that's exactly how i felt with the old app!
if they were to try and, lets say, make photos thumbnails bigger on news feed in the old app, it would just look a mess of information! you would get the image on the banner, the photos on the news feed...just wouldn't work imo!

the new one is a LOT better because, well, it has so much MORE functionality!
YES it uses a design based upon what FB uses for Android/iOS but i believe they managed to metrofy it beautifuly! just look at the top blue banner, the icons, the text boxes, the menus when you swipe left/right...there's metro everywhere! there's no gradients, no shades, it's just a flat, clean, simple design and it looks sooo much better than FB for Android/iOS!
but still retains that FB feeling...which will surely help us a lot with people moving from Android/iOS, since they will have an app with a design they are familiar with BUT that is still metro!

 

[Andr3sfc]

OP: did it ever occur to you that, with this beta, they are trying to make things work fine first? The style adjustment would come later.

Anyway, let me say this: people's priority is for something that just WORKS. The "yays" you've mentioned were surely for being able to enjoy a *functional* Facebook app, an opposite experience from the current official app.

Ps: that banner is a waste of space, glad it's not there in the beta.

 

[Flagz]

There is still too much credit to Android/iOS for this design paradigm. Lets nip this in the bud.

The FB app navigation paradigm has NOTHING to do with iOS or Android. Android and iOS both initially used icons, toolbars and tabs (TouchWiz still does).

The new FB app with its button and sidebar was a Path app innovation if I remember correctly. Google too innovated a fair bit in the new age app design (though unrelated to Android, they were doing it for their own apps which were complex and not for consistency with Android) and FB quickly proliferated it. The sidebar is an app UI innovation that came from grassroots developers for apps that have a LOT of features and which would otherwise have very ungainly navigation UIs.

So what you are seeing in this FB app is a Metrofied version of FB's own paradigm. Not iOS's, Not Android's. As everyone can see, this app has no tabs, no icons as such at the bottom. If anything, it bears a remarkable resemblance in concept to the Touch/Mobile Facebook website.

Facebook brought this design TO Android and iOS and now it is coming to WP. So this is FB coming to WP. Not MS pulling in Android/iOS design to WP.

When Instagram finally comes to WP, will we complain that an Android/iOS "app" is invading WP? No Instagram merely brought their app to the various platforms in order of popularity.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this isn't iOS/Android design. This is FB design, the design FB would take it everywhere it goes. Since MS made the app, its been Metrofied to fit better with the rest of the UI, all of which is a great thing

Finally, to people still on the fence, I'd like to pose a simple question. If you actually try to think the navigation of a complex app through, you will realise no "heavy" or "complex" app will embrace Metro in all its Pivoty, Panoramy, Large Texty goodness. Pivots serve the same purpose in WP as tabs did in old Android and the bottom toolbar buttons do in iOS, they move you from one category or area to the next.

Now try and segment the various parts of FB into pivots and panoramas, start counting them. FB is so heavy and so feature rich that you would have almost 20 adjacent pivots and side scrolling hell if you did not want to combine pivots with toolbar buttons and categories embedded in menus (Which is an ugly hack some heavy metro apps have been using). The side scrolling pivots and panoramas work great when there are small number of logical segments but they cannot replace the FB or Gmail Sidebar (Similary the *default* MS made WP email app uses pivots for the various labels WITHIN Inbox but does not do so for folders, it chooses a menu list instead. There is a reason why the previous FB app design needed a drastic changed, there was no way all those things could be crammed into the traditional old style Metro paradigm

8 of 10 - Understanding Pivots and Panoramic view controls
Like a Boss! Understanding the Difference between Panorama and Pivot in Windows Phone - Canadian Mobile Developers' Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Pano versus Pivot: Windows Phone Design Days content available
Windows Phone 7 - Part #5: Panorama and Pivot controls
Blink's Guide to Metro Design | Windows Phone 7 (This is excellent for non developers too)

Links like those meant for developers actually show that Metro is not actually evolving either, all this was planned from the very beginning. In that sense, there has been no 180 or 90 turn. They clearly say when you have more pivots than 6-7, you need to split it into a list view first. Which is sort of what the FB sidebar is in a FB/Metro compromise.

If I was to suggest here that Metro has deficiencies and cannot handle all design cases, I'd probably get labelled a troll but if you trawl through MS's own documentation for developers. They are pretty self-aware about the strengths and limits of Metro design and make affordances everywhere for its weaknesses.

WP/Metro are very new and very exciting but sometimes the radically different navigational architecture really leaves developers scratching their heads with complex apps. I for one, cannot even begin to imagine how a "true" Metro FB app would function whilst maintaining any sort of semblance with the actual FB mobile properties such as m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com.

This is probably one of the most intelligent post in a LONG TIME. People are to close minded about Metro UI. Really, this FB app is as modern as it comes to keep all the usability in for the WP community.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

I actually agree too. Metro is great, but its meant for lighter apps that don't need to do anything super heavy, to be fair, I don't think the general UI designs of android or iOS are any better off.

The biggest point I have about metro not dying is if it were, why would every company be copying it. Look at the new htc sense, and that flipboard program, and many of the android skins along with web apps...they are all trying to mimick its design because, while it has limitations, metro is very pretty and up front. I love metro because its stylish, and futuristic looking, and works well for what it is. Like I said, metro is for lighter tasks, I mean, would you really want for example, a metro version of photoshop or any other professional grade software, definitely not! Its not designed for UI's that need to be complex, but for simple things, like a music player, text, contacts(people), xbox, the core wp and win8 aps, it works extremely well.

 

[Florin Anghel]

I felt gutted when I read 241 comments (at that moment) on WPCentral news that Daniel wrote about new Facebook beta. I was deeply saddened to say the least after seeing the trend in all those comments. The number of woooots and yays for the new design was unbelievable. I'm one of those rare ones who still remember Feb 2010 announcement and a WP without copy paste, still remember what going from big dead space to no dead space at all and death of that tiny arrow. In short, in less dramatic way - I've been around since Metro was put on my palm, indeed in days of WM6.5!

The current beta app according to me is a touch.facebook.com with Metro-ish looking flat and no-chrome with our fonts. Something that resembles iPhone and Android app. Even though the current non-beta app has numerous bugs, the beauty of Metro was wonderful! The space on top that some people say "wasted space" wasn't any more wasted than "People" in People's Hub! But everything in a panorama was how Metro was meant to be (anyone remember Joe's first speech?). It's gone.

It felt like Microsoft itself retracted from the whole Metro - a baby that was so precious that they overhauled Windows with it, they changed Microsoft with it and they couldn't make a Facebook app with it?

In a nutshell, anyone else feels like if this continues, no third party developer might bother with that panoramic, huge typography of metro and just start delivering apps without chrome, flat boxes and vibrant colours only? Will that kill Metro in a couple of years, completely?

Are we bored of it already? I know I'm not!

You took the words out of my mouth! Completely agree! (beside the fact that I wasn't with WP so long as you were)
People like it, I really don't know why, I really really don't want to lose the Modern UI design! This is the signature of MS on WP and WIN8.
Is sad that sometimes, people who have something against innovation and different design, come and bash MS. The result? behold the new FB beta!

 

[MrSean490]

What this proves is, is that Metro can't always do the job. The current Facebook app vs the BETA one is just clear evidence. Sometimes you gotta take a step back and use the UI that facilitates the appropriate functionality.