Wow! Lots of thought went into this and into the design mock ups. I really like much of this, but some of it conflicts with existing gestures and some it seems too complicated for where Microsoft wants Windows Phone to be. Here are some specific comments and suggestions.
Ringer: I like what you did hear. I don't think that scrolling notifications won't be as useful in real life as you might, but that's OK because, as you designed it, it's the kind of feature that one can use if they want it and can skip if they don't. Excellent.
Internet: I have a lot of issues with this one. I agree that the address field in the app bar needs to be trimmed down in size to make room for more functions. However, rest of the idea makes the browser complicated and makes the app bar work differently that all other apps. W
1. Currently, WP only allows 4 buttons in an app bar, although MS could change this.
2. Swiping down from the top already has a different meaning (show status bar) in other apps. I'd make "show tabs" one of the four buttons in the app bar.
3. Swiping left/right on the bar is unlike all other apps, which use the gesture to switch panels of a pivot or panorama app. Can I convince you that a two-fingered swipe left/right on the web content is an acceptable way to go back/forward?
4. If multi-finger swiping is used, how about triple-finger swipe to do tab switching? (We would still have the tab view screen, but maybe this is quick enough that users would let the tabs feature stay in the menu area rather than the icon area of the app bar.)
5. If the "address/loading status" bar that you show when a page is loading had a stop/refresh button to the left of the text field, we could keep that functionality close by, even with the 4-button limit of app bars.
6. The app bar would be user-choice, address, favorites, and find on page.
Volume: I agree that separate controls are needed for ringer vs media, but this treatment seems messy. (Also, did you know that pressing the hardware back key makes the volume popup disappear? The drag-up-to-close is different than the rest of WP.) Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions in this area. Anyone else?
Multitasking: Lots to say here.
1. While I think that it's unnecessary to close apps, I realize that people want to and this treatment is ok. (Down probably makes more sense since Windows 8 uses down.)
2. Pinning is interesting and I think that the idea of giving certain apps "preferential treatment" could be taken further in future revs!
3. The swiping from the edge to switch tasks looks a big problem because that gesture is already used for switching panels on pivot and panorama apps.
4. The extra features in the app bar seem weird. "Close others" seems unnecessary when the list isn't that big. Rotation lock and horizontal mode (cool idea, BTW) are good, but I don't know why they'd be in a task switching page. Universal search belongs on the actual search button. (If we're assuming that MS is making changes, that one makes more sense than creating a different search feature that users get to by long-pressing the Back key.)
Quick Settings: I just don't see the need for this. I'm guessing that you came to WP from Android, where there was a greater need to toggle these things.
Notifications: This seems over-wrought, but mostly because I think that the thing that we're missing is a log of missed toasts, not other activities. What kind of "notification events" would go into such a center, other than missed toasts?
I really applaud your ideas and effort here. I also chuckled at the footnote and spent a lot of time looking for the first asterisk. Well done.
Ringer: I like what you did hear. I don't think that scrolling notifications won't be as useful in real life as you might, but that's OK because, as you designed it, it's the kind of feature that one can use if they want it and can skip if they don't. Excellent.
Internet: I have a lot of issues with this one. I agree that the address field in the app bar needs to be trimmed down in size to make room for more functions. However, rest of the idea makes the browser complicated and makes the app bar work differently that all other apps. W
1. Currently, WP only allows 4 buttons in an app bar, although MS could change this.
2. Swiping down from the top already has a different meaning (show status bar) in other apps. I'd make "show tabs" one of the four buttons in the app bar.
3. Swiping left/right on the bar is unlike all other apps, which use the gesture to switch panels of a pivot or panorama app. Can I convince you that a two-fingered swipe left/right on the web content is an acceptable way to go back/forward?
4. If multi-finger swiping is used, how about triple-finger swipe to do tab switching? (We would still have the tab view screen, but maybe this is quick enough that users would let the tabs feature stay in the menu area rather than the icon area of the app bar.)
5. If the "address/loading status" bar that you show when a page is loading had a stop/refresh button to the left of the text field, we could keep that functionality close by, even with the 4-button limit of app bars.
6. The app bar would be user-choice, address, favorites, and find on page.
Volume: I agree that separate controls are needed for ringer vs media, but this treatment seems messy. (Also, did you know that pressing the hardware back key makes the volume popup disappear? The drag-up-to-close is different than the rest of WP.) Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions in this area. Anyone else?
Multitasking: Lots to say here.
1. While I think that it's unnecessary to close apps, I realize that people want to and this treatment is ok. (Down probably makes more sense since Windows 8 uses down.)
2. Pinning is interesting and I think that the idea of giving certain apps "preferential treatment" could be taken further in future revs!
3. The swiping from the edge to switch tasks looks a big problem because that gesture is already used for switching panels on pivot and panorama apps.
4. The extra features in the app bar seem weird. "Close others" seems unnecessary when the list isn't that big. Rotation lock and horizontal mode (cool idea, BTW) are good, but I don't know why they'd be in a task switching page. Universal search belongs on the actual search button. (If we're assuming that MS is making changes, that one makes more sense than creating a different search feature that users get to by long-pressing the Back key.)
Quick Settings: I just don't see the need for this. I'm guessing that you came to WP from Android, where there was a greater need to toggle these things.
Notifications: This seems over-wrought, but mostly because I think that the thing that we're missing is a log of missed toasts, not other activities. What kind of "notification events" would go into such a center, other than missed toasts?
I really applaud your ideas and effort here. I also chuckled at the footnote and spent a lot of time looking for the first asterisk. Well done.
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