I noticed a few delightful changes to IE.
First, the ad-blocks are much better.
It is speedier. The swipe back seems to be more responsive.
But, the biggest thing is the "Read" mode is much...much better. Now it is vertical viewing as opposed horizontal.
If you are on a website and pull up the address bar (swipe up from the bottom)
you will see an icon of a book. If you click on it, it will strip everything out, leaving a
simplified view of just the content you want, the article text and the corresponding pictures.
Previously, it would read like newspaper columns and you would have to swipe to read the next
column. This concerned me about a basic design element of the modern W8, and perhaps the 16:10 ratio in general.
The human eye, speaking as a human from a highly antidotal point of view, has difficulty making sense
of a shifting or panning horizontal field of vision.
Now, if the gaze is fixed, we have an impressive horizontal view. (On the look out for predators?)
So, for example when looking at the start screen, seeing all the live tiles that is visible on the screen at once
is a slick way of seeing everything at a glance. My reservation though, is the second you start to swipe the tiles
to see more, the eye can not focus or take it in as it is swiping. You almost have to do an abrupt stop and start sort of thing.
This is jarring and causes me to lose flow. This is what the old "read" mode did. It was difficult to keep a good flow.
But, now that it is in vertical flow, so much more enjoyable.
Getting back to the flow. WP has it right, the Live tiles scroll vertically. It is much easier to scan and actually compute what
the eye is seeing as it scrolls vertically. But, it is much more difficult to do horizontally.
Take for example a simple Craigslist page. I have the app, Craigslist Pro, and it scrolls horizontally. I have to do that stop and start method.
Making it slow and cumbersome. But, if I go to the website and scroll vertically through the listings, it is amazing my eye can scan and see trigger or keywords I am looking for as I am actively scrolling. Horizontally, there is no way. So when I first received the Surface 2, this was a big concern because, it seems the design language naturally lends itself to this horizontally panning. But, with Microsoft switching to the vertical scroll in read mode, it gives me hope that they are moving in the right direction. Knock on wood anyways.
First, the ad-blocks are much better.
It is speedier. The swipe back seems to be more responsive.
But, the biggest thing is the "Read" mode is much...much better. Now it is vertical viewing as opposed horizontal.
If you are on a website and pull up the address bar (swipe up from the bottom)
you will see an icon of a book. If you click on it, it will strip everything out, leaving a
simplified view of just the content you want, the article text and the corresponding pictures.
Previously, it would read like newspaper columns and you would have to swipe to read the next
column. This concerned me about a basic design element of the modern W8, and perhaps the 16:10 ratio in general.
The human eye, speaking as a human from a highly antidotal point of view, has difficulty making sense
of a shifting or panning horizontal field of vision.
Now, if the gaze is fixed, we have an impressive horizontal view. (On the look out for predators?)
So, for example when looking at the start screen, seeing all the live tiles that is visible on the screen at once
is a slick way of seeing everything at a glance. My reservation though, is the second you start to swipe the tiles
to see more, the eye can not focus or take it in as it is swiping. You almost have to do an abrupt stop and start sort of thing.
This is jarring and causes me to lose flow. This is what the old "read" mode did. It was difficult to keep a good flow.
But, now that it is in vertical flow, so much more enjoyable.
Getting back to the flow. WP has it right, the Live tiles scroll vertically. It is much easier to scan and actually compute what
the eye is seeing as it scrolls vertically. But, it is much more difficult to do horizontally.
Take for example a simple Craigslist page. I have the app, Craigslist Pro, and it scrolls horizontally. I have to do that stop and start method.
Making it slow and cumbersome. But, if I go to the website and scroll vertically through the listings, it is amazing my eye can scan and see trigger or keywords I am looking for as I am actively scrolling. Horizontally, there is no way. So when I first received the Surface 2, this was a big concern because, it seems the design language naturally lends itself to this horizontally panning. But, with Microsoft switching to the vertical scroll in read mode, it gives me hope that they are moving in the right direction. Knock on wood anyways.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram