UI Inconsistencies

[SonOfDad]

You stick around and put up with abuse and bad decisions and hope it gets better but you know you should've left a long time ago.

Big thumbs up to this!

 

[LondonLumia]

Guys.... These are just mobile phones. Using an OS is not a lifelong commitment that should never be broken. If it works for you - use it. If it doesn't, don't feel obliged to, find something that does. I'm failing to see how an OS 'abuses' people.

 

[Krystianpants]

Well we know that Windows 10 Desktop is still not consistent with UI and they are making it more consistent each build we see. My guess is that the same thing will happen with Windows 10 mobile as the artists/designers may not exactly be working at the same pace as the coders and they may not even be supplying all the assets.

It could also be different builds are usually used for internal testing only and the designers may want to see how something would look if it were live on a mobile build so they put it in. And it normally would only be seen by the internal teams but we are seeing it now and as a result things don't look quite normal. So keep in mind it's a work in progress.

 

[michail71]

It points to some fundamental issues going on at Microsoft. I do software development and management and I make these things a priority from the beginning. It feels like design principles are getting ignored in the beginning and then they take several build cycles to start cleaning things up once they get enough feedback about the problem.

In 8.0/8.1 days they had a strong design ethic. Now it feels like developers ignoring design have run amuck.

Whatever the case is, we truly are being given the android experience.

 

[fierovin]

Windows 10 mobile design

After having spent the last couple weeks on 10536 I just reverted to 8.1 on my Lumia Icon. I thought about loading the new build that came out yesterday, but honestly I was pretty disappointed in the 536 build. Sure there were a few features and changes that seemed nice, but after having 8.1 in hand again I've realized the overall design is much more aesthetically pleasing. I'm not a big fan of the round people icons, I know we're trying to make everything uniform but I'm not a huge fan. The other thing is the menu/screen titles that slide across the top in 8.1. They look so much nicer than the blocky lifeless ones in 10. Last is the hamburger menus. Again I think I understand what they're trying to do but now it's just a more confusing design. In many places you still have the ellipsis at the bottom and a hamburger at the top. Which one will have what I'm looking for. Those things combined with how poorly 536 ran on my phone for this late in the game. I'll be holding off for now on any more insider builds.

 

[celticmagick]

I agree. I submitted this in the feedback app, especially regarding the media apps. A consistent UI is important for efficiency and making an OS feel solid, professional, and not just thrown together by thousands of different people who have never met.

 

[Ma Rio]

For some weird reason, this doesn't bother me that much. I didn't even notice it untill you mentioned it. I don't even know if I'd feel better if they fixed the inconsistencies. While I would like to see some bad implementations (like the hamburger and the cogwheel) gone, I don't mind a little difference between apps.

 

[bhtkb]

I think, clearing out those inconsistencies is not very difficult because most of them are minor differences that can be unified when the final decision is done on the look. However, remaking an overall design and UX would need plenty of work. Therefore, I'm not concerned about those inconsistencies, they will be fixed definitely; but the overall new design which doesnt appeal to me at all will not change. That's the thing bothering me.

 

[Salmanman]

This issue reminds me of some suggestion that was made months ago on The Verge. It enlisted a number of ideas, but the most important one was the use of both the hamburger button and pivot as means of navigation.

The more I've been interacting with both W10 for desktop and Mobile, the more I'm convinced this is the way to go. I've been following closely the Windows Design Team decisions: their conferences, official and non official statements, and suggestions from fans, and I conclude that their way of dividing navigation and actions is great, but they need to commit to one way of navigation.

The Windows apps almost seem like a demo of all the ways of interacting with an app, which I guess is fine to inspire developers, but it's horrible in terms of intuition and learning the OS. From all the options, hamburger + pivot is the best because the pivot keeps making W10 look like it's own thing, and the hamburger fixes the all or most of the cons inherent to the pivot.

And about the icons, I think they should stick to the Metro principle of using only typography unless it's absolutely necessary to use icons. And, though I don't love the wireframe, or monoline, or whatever icons, I think they're OK; but again, I would like them to stick to that type of icons instead of using those weird geometrical icons for the tiles.

 

[Paolo Ferrazza]

I'd also suggest adding examples of these:

Some apps have only an ellipsis menu (Edge)
Some apps have only a hamburger
Some apps have both

Depending on which app you're looking at, the settings entry could be in either of those menues, and sometimes in none (in which case it's likely represented as a cogwheel icon, either at the top or bottom of screen, which also isn't consistent). The entry for settings is just an example. The same inconsistencies exist for almost any common menu entry.

Seriously, decide what is best placed where...

Hamburger for navigation, ellipsis for actions. This is how I understood it, and how it actually would make sense. Then again they look pretty confused about it too

 

[Leonel Funes]

This post is not intended for insiders who I'm sure are well aware of the UI inconsistencies and may or may not be not bothered. This post is intended for Microsoft who may be lurking in the forums. Perhaps if they have any pride in their work seeing the inconsistencies laid bare will trigger some changes.. but probably not.

Context Menus

Context menu type 1

View attachment 113363

Context menu type 2 (outlook/calendar: icons, different background colour)

View attachment 113364

Context menu type 3 (onedrive: transparent, different foreground colour)

View attachment 113366

Tab Headers

Type 1 (dialler)

View attachment 113367

Type 2 (alarms: Similar to dialler but thinner strip)

View attachment 113368

Type 3 (people)

View attachment 113370

Type 4 (photos: similar to people but has background strip and different sizing and positioning)

View attachment 113371

Alpha Grid

Type 1 (apps list)

View attachment 113372

Type 2 (people)

View attachment 113373

Other

White keyboard, search field and settings in dark theme outlook

View attachment 113374

View attachment 113375

2 words - TECHNICAL PREVIEW

2 more words - BE PATIENT

 

[SonOfDad]

2 words - TECHNICAL PREVIEW

Really tiresome people trotting that out, if this thing is due for launch in a month they should have onscreen app functions locked down. The same garbage was provided with the inconsistencies on desktop.

2 more words - BE PATIENT

Another two words - FIVE YEARS

 

[GrandGerminator]

Hey ! Are these problems solved while the RTM is coming very soon ?

 

[Peter McNeill1]

MS is more business orientated than consumer which is why you'll always see things like all CAPS in headers and such in the menus and UI elements. Or to put it different, you've just written your resume in proper business format but wait, it looks to much like WP10, so you rewrite it with only the first letter of words capitalized in headers. There, now that looks much cooler! I guarantee Human Resources will take one look and toss it in the garbage. Right now that is where MS is still coming from since they do want the business sector to use their phones (somehow, heh).

 

[elindalyne]

In regards to Pivots vs Hamburgers vs Ellipses

Pivots are only OK if you can always see the entirety of the heading of what you're around in. This generally means you can only have 2-4 pivots on a page. The second a user does not know where they're pivoting to, they get confused.

Hamburgers denote navigation. This has become pretty standard in web and app development. The only issue with them is they can potentially lead to lower user interaction.

Ellipses denote "More". If you've got a list of something, this is just saying that there are more options available.

All of these are pretty much industry standards these days.

 

[SonOfDad]

Not only is the UI inconsistent they can't even apply the users selected accent colour correctly!

 

[Kram Sacul]

Not only is the UI inconsistent they can't even apply the users selected accent colour correctly!

[url]http://s15.postimg.org/tccylobmv/wp_ss_20151111_0004.jpg[/url]

It's always amusing that even though they added more accent colors in W10M the overall color pallet is weak. Mostly dull grays and browns. Is this a funeral? Where are the vibrant colors like yellow, crimson, lime, indigo and the awesome cobalt blue that was in 8.0?

 

[SonOfDad]

I see absolutely no reason why you can't select from a full colour pallet hell if you can make text in word any colour you want why not your OS?

 

[920Walker]

I see absolutely no reason why you can't select from a full colour pallet hell if you can make text in word any colour you want why not your OS?

Agreed, even though some color combos may make text indistinguishable, let users create the look of a late 90's webpage if they wish.

Depending on the background used and amount of transparency applied an infinite amount of colors can be created on the start screen but nowhere else, unfortunately.