Windows 10 mobile UI major downgrade in clarity

[MBY]

I just put my phone on W10 TP yesterday with build 10166. Unfortunately I'm finding that in addition to the many bugs and missing features (which I have confidence will be fixed with time) I dislike almost all the UI changes.

Wireframe icons: It's much harder to look at the icons at the top of the screen and immediately know what they are intended to communicate. For example the WiFi icon is so thin it's very difficult to see the difference between the filled and empty bars.

Tiles: I can't figure out why the designers shrank the icons of many apps within their tiles. For example phone and messaging icons are tiny on the wide tiles. And the number of notifications is now tiny in the corner instead of a large easily visible font.

Tile folders: These used to have clear tile borders. Now the icons seem to be floating in space within the folder.

All of this makes what was formerly a very user-friendly UI into eye strain city!

 

[Pete]

Use the feedback app to raise your concerns.

But yes, things will change and get polished over time, we still have a few months to go until Windows 10 Mobile is released (it certainly won't be in a few weeks time).

 

[Kram Sacul]

The wireframe/hollow system tray icons are a part of W10's new poorly thought out design language so I wouldn't hold my breath with them changing it back. There is some hope though since they finally fixed the tiny battery icon with a proper solid icon rather than the icon from W10 desktop.

The feedback app is a joke. If they really took the suggestions there seriously they would've nuked the whole hamburger menu idea immediately from the amount of dislike it has.

 

[MBY]

Thanks for that validation, at least. And yes, I left all this feedback through the app as well. The wireframes are bad on desktop too - like removing colors from many first-party tiles, which makes them harder to distinguish clearly. But on desktop any lack of visual clarity isn't as dire as on the smaller screen.

 

[colinkiama]

The wireframe/hollow system tray icons are a part of W10's new poorly thought out design language so I wouldn't hold my breath with them changing it back. There is some hope though since they finally fixed the tiny battery icon with a proper solid icon rather than the icon from W10 desktop.

The feedback app is a joke. If they really took the suggestions there seriously they would've nuked the whole hamburger menu idea immediately from the amount of dislike it has.

The hamburger button isn't disappearing though, Microsoft said it themselves: There is no better way to hiding other functions of an app while making it discoverable to the user. Also when android apps are ported over, they won't appear so different to native apps.

 

[MBY]

I don't want to turn this into another debate on the hamburger but there are better and worse ways of implementing it. The Office preview apps (NOT OneNote) do this very well by putting the equivalent of the ribbon in the app bar (ellipsis menu) and the file menu in the hamburger. Perfect balance.

 

[Kram Sacul]

The hamburger button isn't disappearing though, Microsoft said it themselves: There is no better way to hiding other functions of an app while making it discoverable to the user.

We both know that is nonsense though. WP has had the ellipsis/app bar menu for years and it's in the ideal bottom orientated spot. This idea that Windows suddenly needs to adapt bad design from Android and iOS has been unconvincing and poor at best. It makes as much sense as "people aren't squares".

Also when android apps are ported over, they won't appear so different to native apps.

So you have an entire OS that looks like Android but isn't Android. Good plan.

 

[Asskickulater]

We both know that is nonsense though. WP has had the ellipsis/app bar menu for years and it's in the ideal bottom orientated spot. This idea that Windows suddenly needs to adapt bad design from Android and iOS has been unconvincing and poor at best. It makes as much sense as "people aren't squares".



So you have an entire OS that looks like Android but isn't Android. Good plan.

The elipses was good for simple things, but if the OS wants to become more feature complete, and allow the amount of features competitors have a UI change HAS to happen, and hamburger is the most obvious step, yea there probably is a better way, but with the amount of stuff that needs done on W10 do you really thing the time required to create an entire new menu system is time well spent? They will probably iterate on this over time, and it will probably become much better with updates, but for now, hamburger is good enough..

 

[MBY]

Ok getting back on the topic of UI elements other than the menu, I really hope that Edge pages not showing an image when pinned to start is a bug or just still incomplete. It really enhanced the tile feel of the UI and brought something unique to the ecosystem. So I hope it's not another of these incomprehensible decisions.

 

[colinkiama]

The elipses was good for simple things, but if the OS wants to become more feature complete, and allow the amount of features competitors have a UI change HAS to happen, and hamburger is the most obvious step, yea there probably is a better way, but with the amount of stuff that needs done on W10 do you really thing the time required to create an entire new menu system is time well spent? They will probably iterate on this over time, and it will probably become much better with updates, but for now, hamburger is good enough..

Thank you, someone who finally realises that the hamburgers are only used for complicated apps.

 

[HXD]

I just put my phone on W10 TP yesterday with build 10166. Unfortunately I'm finding that in addition to the many bugs and missing features (which I have confidence will be fixed with time. I'm pretty sure W10M will be delivered to us in the final form with most of these bugs still there.) I dislike almost all the UI changes. The majority of us do.

Wireframe icons: It's much harder to look at the icons at the top of the screen and immediately know what they are intended to communicate. For example the WiFi icon is so thin it's very difficult to see the difference between the filled and empty bars. They haven't got any smaller for me...

Tiles: I can't figure out why the designers shrank the icons of many apps within their tiles. For example phone and messaging icons are tiny on the wide tiles. And the number of notifications is now tiny in the corner instead of a large easily visible font. I'm not sure many will support you on that. Smaller always looks neater.

Tile folders: These used to have clear tile borders. Now the icons seem to be floating in space within the folder.

All of this makes what was formerly a very user-friendly UI into eye strain city!

 

[Kram Sacul]

The elipses was good for simple things, but if the OS wants to become more feature complete, and allow the amount of features competitors have a UI change HAS to happen, and hamburger is the most obvious step, yea there probably is a better way, but with the amount of stuff that needs done on W10 do you really thing the time required to create an entire new menu system is time well spent? They will probably iterate on this over time, and it will probably become much better with updates, but for now, hamburger is good enough..

Yeah, right. So what features does the hamburger menu suddenly give the user besides an aching thumb? In a lot of apps it's used as a junk drawer. I'll agree that WP has missed out on that aspect.

Thank you, someone who finally realises that the hamburgers are only used for complicated apps.

It's used in the calculator app. lol

 

[Asskickulater]

Yeah, right. So what features does the hamburger menu suddenly give the user besides an aching thumb? In a lot of apps it's used as a junk drawer. I'll agree that WP has missed out on that aspect.



It's used in the calculator app. lol

wow, your ability to look past the now is astonishing /s

Remember the settings screen? The screen that everyone hated so much because it was unorganized and cluttered?

Yea, that screen, that screen is the elipses if the UI doesn't change, it, like the original settings screen, was made for a much simpler OS. If Microsoft doesn't work on this issue it will end up with the same creep that made the settings section a mess.

AND might I add, the swipe/elipses navigation you are claiming is "the best" was a broken UI itself, the most blaring example is how the panorama swipe view was only meant to filter categories, NOT as the navigation of an entire OS, atleast with hamburger menus, now there is a standard for developers to use, helping to create a more unified UI.

and anothert thing, I don't see how reaching your thumb to the top is hard, I can do it with ease on my 925's 4.5" screen, if you have anything bigger then I ask you this: Why would you buy a 5"+ phone if you wanna use it one handed? That's a fantastic way to drop it and break it.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Oh please. That is a hilariously bad argument. You have no clue if you think the WP UI is more broken then putting a tacky menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen which you can't even swipe in from the edge. Trying to defend that is beyond dumb. Good luck with that.

Time to move on.

 

[Yazen]

I just put my phone on W10 TP yesterday with build 10166. Unfortunately I'm finding that in addition to the many bugs and missing features (which I have confidence will be fixed with time) I dislike almost all the UI changes.

Wireframe icons: It's much harder to look at the icons at the top of the screen and immediately know what they are intended to communicate. For example the WiFi icon is so thin it's very difficult to see the difference between the filled and empty bars.

Tiles: I can't figure out why the designers shrank the icons of many apps within their tiles. For example phone and messaging icons are tiny on the wide tiles. And the number of notifications is now tiny in the corner instead of a large easily visible font.

Tile folders: These used to have clear tile borders. Now the icons seem to be floating in space within the folder.

All of this makes what was formerly a very user-friendly UI into eye strain city!

The icon sizes are not final, but I do agree with your concerns. Not a big fan of their transparent UI schema, however I do feel as though it is somewhat refreshing.

 

[Asskickulater]

Oh please. That is a hilariously bad argument. You have no clue if you think the WP UI is more broken then putting a tacky menu icon in the upper left corner of the screen which you can't even swipe in from the edge. Trying to defend that is beyond dumb. Good luck with that.

Time to move on.

You have so little to back up your side of the argument that you that you have resorted to insults? I agree, time to move on.

 

[Pete]

Now that this topic has descended into yet another hamburger hate thread, I agree - time to move on.