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Did Metro UX Elements Come From a 2009 Demo?

Posted by timothy on from the gesture-grammar dept.

First time accepted submitter oso2k writes "In 2009, as reported by gizmag, Robert Clayton Miller proposed a UI that borrowed from familiar iPhone gestures and translated them to a multi-tasking data-input rich desktop UI. It would seem, however, Microsoft was paying attention. Elements in Miller's design seem to have been lifted for Metro UI, such as dynamic sized widgets (tiles in Metro UI) on the home screen, swipes alternate between open, fullscreened apps, left tap for the app context menu, right tap for the system context menu. And in Miller's video at [5:41], it would seem Microsoft used the same or nearly the same font [4:30]." It's interesting to spot resemblances here, but how many UI ideas don't have more than one inventor?

5 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Zune circa 2006 by Missing.Matter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Metro design elements date back to at least 2006 with the Zune and evolved in 2008 with the new Xbox 360 UI. The font Microsoft uses for Metro is Segoe and dates back to 2004. Seriously, I know Slashdot is anti MS, but this is just getting ridiculous... first a post about how only 25% of Windows 8 prefer the OS to other versions of Windows, when 74% of those polled say they never even used Windows 8, and now this?

    1. Re:Zune circa 2006 by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, the point is that Microsoft has been thinking about the metro UI for a very long time. To say that they pilfered elements from this specific video in 2009 and then rushed to implement them into Windows 8 with absolutely zero evidence is pretty underhanded. Where are all the commentors on the Apple v. Samsung stories right about now, who profess that touch-based user interface interactions that are obvious should not be patented and freely copied?

      I mean, it's pretty easy to tell "first time accepted submitter oso2k" (by the way oso2k, what exactly are we supposed to infer at 4:30 in Microsoft's video, which is a black screen with a copyright notice? Great job doing your job Slashdot editors) doesn't have much experience with Windows 8, as the similarities he or she draws between the two GUIs are tenuous at best. The whole point of this "con10uum" interface is a 1D window manager which arranges open windows in a line. You essentially pan back and forth in this window list and you can resize and reorder windows using multi touch gestures. This is nothing like Windows 8, which essentially allows you to only swipe through windows in order and place at most two side by side.

      The only real similarity between the two GUIs is the existence of a global menu (not novel) an application specific menu (not novel) and a gesture to activate them (not novel). 10/GUI suggest this gesture is tapping on a specialized region separate from the touch screen, while Windows 8 uses a swipe in gesture from the edge of a touch screen. These are very different operations and require specialized algorithms and technology for each case (gesture recognition, edge to edge touch detection etc).

    2. Re:Zune circa 2006 by im_thatoneguy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You've only mentioned style and appearance. This is about the function of the UI.

      Con10uum: Every window should be always open and you just scroll left to right between them. Dynamically scaling each window with pinch/zoom.
      Windows 8: Only 1 or 2 apps should ever be open and you swap the one currently on the screen.
      Functional comparison: Fingers are involved in both gestures. Functionally completely different windowing philosophy.

      Con10uum: You should click a button off to the left side of the screen to bring up the app context menu.
      Windows 8: You swipe from the bottom of the screen.
      Functional comparison: Both acknowledge the fact that applications have menus and provide a means of accessing said menu.

      Con10uum: You should click a button off to the right side of the screen to open the launcher.
      Windows 8: You should swipe from the side of the screen to reveal an onscreen button to open the launcher. You also reveal global actions such as sharing or printing the current page.
      Functional comparison: Both involve clicking on the right area of the screen. Seeing as there are only 3 usable sides to a touchscreen it's a stretch to say that this was a rip-off. Especially since Microsoft's explanation of "It's where your thumb is when you hold a tablet" is a perfectly good rationale and makes more sense than "because some web video that nobody saw put it there."
      Con10uum has no equivalent to Microsoft's global sharing button. In Con10uum that would be part of the application's file menu and would be in a different menu.

      Con10uum: Desktop widgets.
      Windows 8: No desktop in Metro. The launcher icons though can display extended information.
      Functional Comparison: Widgets have been around for decades. Every customized windows theme included an RSS/News widget on the desktop. It's just "what you do". But functionally a widget and a metro tile are completely different. A widget is an enhanced part of the desktop and was in Windows Vista as part of the OS for years before Con10uum. A tile though serves dual purposes as primarily an icon but a secondary duty as a widget.

  2. Original Ideas Stream Forth from Redmond by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just like a flood of Athenas - flooding from the forehead of Zeus!

    We are awash in the innovations and creativity gushing from Microsoft. One simple antecedent in the case of the Metro interface hardly mars the unbroken record of stunning inventiveness and groundbreaking vision that can be directly attributed to the far-sighted leadership of Ballmer's Microsoft.

    Someday, the humble Zune will be recognized as the beginning of the post-PC era, which Microsoft ushered, leading from behind.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  3. Slashdot comedy gold... by mystikkman · · Score: 3, Funny

    Metro design elements date back to at least 2006 with the Zune and evolved in 2008 with the new Xbox 360 UI. The font Microsoft uses for Metro is Segoe and dates back to 2004. Seriously, I know Slashdot is anti MS, but this is just getting ridiculous... first a post about how only 25% of Windows 8 prefer the OS to other versions of Windows, when 74% of those polled say they never even used Windows 8, and now this?

    If you want to see some Slashdot comedy gold, you should go back and read some of the past anti-Microsoft stories and comments on Slashdot.

    For example take this one http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/02/16/2259257/Draconian-DRM-Revealed-In-Windows-7

    If these kind of retarded stories were run on some other company, it would be called a FUD campaign secretly sponsored by some evil corp.