(Official) What WP needs to succeed

[spaulagain]

Oh, Jesus Christ. I find it hard to imagine why any of you would have even chosen Windows Phone. The beauty of WP is it's minimalist design. Windows 8 is disappointingly ugly compared to WP. That concept design posted is more atrocious than Android 1.0. I really hope Microsoft sticks with the strict "Metro" design language.

Exactly. People don't understand the power of simplicity and cleanliness.

Adding a background would clutter the **** out of WP homes screen. And clutter depreciates usability. So no, there shouldn't be background images on the home screen.

 

[ololmarc]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

Like mine =D!!! It SCREAMS personality and me.

View attachment 28391

how's your battery life?


anyways, this is what SHOULD be added with the new OS update if they decide to make W8 and WP8 look alike

 

[Dadstar0410]

They won't consider this idea unless it is posted in the Community section of their website. Post it, and have many people vote for it, and it will catch Microsoft's eye!

 

[WavingReds]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

how's your battery life?

Pretty good, 1.5 days

 

[ttsoldier]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

I would like the ability to randomly change my tile colours ever X minutes. I find myself changing it so often.

I also rotate between dark and light background a lot. Need an app for this!

 

[spaulagain]

I would like the ability to randomly change my tile colours ever X minutes. I find myself changing it so often.

I also rotate between dark and light background a lot. Need an app for this!

Now that's kind of a cool idea.

 

[abel920]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

They won't consider this idea unless it is posted in the Community section of their website. Post it, and have many people vote for it, and it will catch Microsoft's eye!

Where's the link for it?!

And Waving Reds!!! AMAZING! I just wished there was an effortless way of doing that. That must have took you a lot of effort and design!

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

how's your battery life?


anyways, this is what SHOULD be added with the new OS update if they decide to make W8 and WP8 look alike

View attachment 28398

Ok now that I can get on board with. But they'll also need to bring it to the Xbox as well. Although I am rocking a Nokia Lumia 800 background atm on my Xbox (the amazing everyday).

 

[joeynox]

I too find the tiles to be somewhat boring at times so I keep changing them. The problem is so many use the default system color scheme. Maybe a an app that shuffles the tiles would help out or allow us to change the tile pictures and color. Also the gap between tiles should have a customizable color . Not just black and white.

 

[Dadstar0410]

Where's the link for it?!

And Waving Reds!!! AMAZING! I just wished there was an effortless way of doing that. That must have took you a lot of effort and design!

It's actually called "User Voice". It's a page on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 website that allows users to request certain features to be implemented into future Windows Phone updates. It's a great way to get your idea out into the public.

http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/forums/101801-feature-suggestions

 

[vakama94]

Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

Something like this would be AMAZING!
View attachment 28345

Nice!, I'd love to see that but applied to Windows Phone 8.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk 2

 

[socialcarpet]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

No thanks.

 

[neoxphuse]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

Ah... No. Way too small, the tiles take up space and you'll be wanting to change the background every freaking day. I like it the way it is.

 

[uswebworx]

RE: (Official) Why I don't like WP8 Part 2 (What WP needs to succeed)

Volume and ring controls separated would be awesome. Simplicity contact management. I've never had a live account until getting this phone. Hate IOS but missing it
Sent from my RM-820_nam_att_100 using Board Express

 

[power5]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

Add a reduced size gutter back into the start screen and without losing too much tile space you would have a small amount of background visible. Also, I see no problem with a simple w8 background in the messaging app. Would give it a little bit of flash as well. Of all my tiny tiles, only the board express tile is using almost all the real estate. With the exception of web pages and contacts. Take 2 pixels out of the tile sizes and you will have 8 pixels for a gutter. Or maybe a few more pixels. The gutter arrow at the bottom is much smaller than the WP7 gutter arrow and plenty big enough for a nice white space size.

I would like to see the transparent tiles as an option as well, but not that important. Also, the colored backgrounds seems like a simple option to add. Not sure how well it would work in apps though. May have to be a start screen only background color. Rest would be the dark or light background.

 

[rmichael75]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

Something like this would be AMAZING!
View attachment 28345

This is exactly what is required. I dont know why , of all pple, MS cannot think or do anything like this. They have been having desktop images for ever windows 3.11. They should be having it. Some body has to send this to joe belforie

 

[socialcarpet]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

This is exactly what is required. I dont know why , of all pple, MS cannot think or do anything like this. They have been having desktop images for ever windows 3.11. They should be having it. Some body has to send this to joe belforie

No, the transparent tiles look awful and they crap all over one of the key parts of Windows Phone's design philosophy, namely that everything is focused on typography and lettering is large and very clear and easy to read. Transparent tiles on a busy background picture fly in the face of that IMO. I'm not even sure why people would want this on a device where icons or tiles cover everything up anyway. A wallpaper on a computer kind of makes sense since at least for part of the day it won't be covered by icons or open windows.

 

[sjhippie]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

I find its easy to keep the look fresh every couple of days with rotating live tiles of my photos. I've saved enough backgrounds and really beautiful photos that it keeps me happy and fresh.

 

[Gaichuke]

Re: Windows Phone 8 NEEDS backgrounds! WP8 is getting boring!

No. Absolutely no.

Windows Phone 8 absolutely does not need backgrounds, transparency effects, gradients or other similar elements. The things that you describe as something sorely needed are the exact same things Windows Phone's design principles walk away from and explicitly discards. For Windows Phone to implement any of those suggestions would mean throwing away the very things that make WP a WP. To but it simply: it's not going to happen. Never.

When you think about it, backgrounds don't make sense at all in Start screen filled with Live Tiles. There simply is not enough white space available for background to be effective there like it can in the Windows 8. Transparent Live Tiles would help in this matter but then the background would contribute so much visual noise to the tiles themselves and instantly negate the whole basic purpose of them, which is to convey information to the user. Very little to be gained and a whole lot to be lost, a very bad exchange if you ask me. Opening up home screen to those suggestions of yours would eventually just make a complete mess of everything. They sometimes do that already in the apps when the developer don't understand the design principles involved in Windows Phone:







I would suggest that you trust me on this, because I know what you're going through.

Almost two years ago, I was still a Symbian user and I was pissed about Nokia's announcement of going WP. I too moaned about how boring and stupid WP design choices were. I too made sketches and concepts how it could be "improved" and was very loud about doing that:




I have since learned how to love Metro UI (or whatever it's called today) and see the wisdom behind it's design choices. Focus on the content and get rid of the chrome that does not contribute. Reduce fiercely and don't look back. I don't think Metro UI is completely perfect, but it's definitely going to the right direction and absolutely represents the future of user interface design in the mobile world.

 

[poddie]

The absolute most that should be done here is to allow a few custom tile colors and maybe allow changing the background color. Anything more than that and you destroy the beauty of windows phone. No transparency/gradients/shadows/wallpaper!