Is W10P entering a pure features battle and losing its distinct design identity?

[DuoWing]

In my time with Windows Phone's UI starting from Zune to now, one thing that has to be realized is that the OS will need to change the more features are added. Having simplistic lines with spacing becomes a plain mess as more and more is added. Even searchable and in alphabetical order the settings menu although it looks cool is such a waste of space. Someone once mentioned that Metro/Modern made a lot more sense on smaller screen/lower resolution phones as things simply looked better with the larger fonts and spacing. I love my 1520 and the design of the OS, but with something like the 1080p screen and 6" the usefulness of 1 hand has kind of gone away due to the size. Another thing that becomes a problem is the design of the OS. Now with this huge screen and high resolution I still don't feel like I'm looking at anymore overall information. I'm just able to see it better further from my face because it's larger. This is where the design starts to show that it's in need of an overhaul. No matter what happens, the OS will be forced to change anyway. Look at iOS. People complain about how little it has changed over all the years, people complain Android has changed too much. There's no way to change or stay the same without complaints. The biggest problem Microsoft faces with Windows 8 is that it's Windows 8. I can't tell you how many people try to make fun of the phone or the OS because it's Windows 8. I've said this before. You can look at reviews of computers where people will say stay away and list the OS as a con. Same thing with Vista. People heard it's bad. Therefore it's forever a horrible operating system. They can't even give you a reason for it being bad, other than it's bad. There are still many people who hate Microsoft just to hate it. They have so much against them that it's kind of a time to change. Personally I don't mind somewhat of a change as I said, it's showing it's age in the way more and more gets added. Apps need to be ported and to some extent letting developers retain some of the familiar design cues that they've learned on iOS/Android is important. People have a hard time changing things, and will put less effort into something if they have to change it too much. Leaving phones similar to the way it currently is and then giving us the new Win10 for desktops and saying it's one experience across all your devices would garner more hate and the typical, oh MS still can't get it right. Finally one other thing that constantly surprises me is the lack of tech knowledge, understanding, experience your average user has. I feel like I'm a fairly big nerd who's spent a lot of times with phones and computers, but I'm by no means an expert on it. I always feel like with everyone having a smartphone and laptop like they do that more people would understand some of these things. So it's always surprising when you see how little these people understand. They can see a pretty OS, but because of their lack of understanding they won't want to switch purely because it's going to be "too complicated" to have to learn a whole new OS. Right now we're one preview in on Windows 10 for phones. Win 10 for PC is slightly further in and you can see how elements are already coming together. I think given time we will see a better consistency in the phone version, and maybe not as big of a departure as initially thought.

 

[wpn00b]

I like what I've seen so far. But until I have the chance to use the technical preview I know for certain.

If the hamburger menu is the price to pay for a more powerful OS, an OS that attracts the Android and iOS devs we need to port apps to WP, and an OS that increases market share, then I think it's a price worth paying.

Did you get here from Android Central?

I was kidding btw, but yes I think it seems to be losing some of its identity. They need to refine and not renovate WP.